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THE 



HISTORY OF BANBURY 



^ntr Its Wei5p0urja0ti. 



BY 

WILLIAM PONSONBY JOHNSON, 

ADTaOK OF TAHTALI.ON, DUSLET CASTLE, &C. 



♦' So thou, fair borough ! disarrayed 
Of battled wall and rampart's aid, 
As stately seem'st, but lovelier far 
Thau iu that panoply of •war." 

MAnHiov. 



BANBURY: 

G. WALFORD, "ADVERTISER" AND "BEACON" OFFICES, 

72, HIGH STREET. 



^ 



INDEX OF PLATES. 

. BANBURY CROSS Frontispiece. 

• THE OLD CHURCH Page 17. 

. BROUGHTON CASTLE „ 35. 

. HIGH STREET „ 112. 

• THE ROUND HOUSE, EDGE HILL „ 138. 

- BODICOTE HOUSE „ 183. 

• THE CHURCH AND VICARAGE „ 228. 

• THE TOWN HALL „ 253. 



THE 

HISTORY OF BANBURY. 

CHAPTER I. 
jFcam iSaclg Eimz^ ta tje Conquest 

Imperfect Materials. — The Ancient Britons. — The Druids and their 
Remains. — The Roman Invasion. — Alliance with the Dobuni. — The Amphi- 
theatre in the Bear Garden. — Departure of the Romans. — Arrival of the 
Saxons. — The Heptarchy. — The Danes. — The Norman Conquest. 

•HE detail of the deeds of by-gone years must necessarily 
be imperfect, if the narrator should fail to begin at the 
beginning. This mode of commencement is undoubtedly desir- 
able ; but there is a difficulty in the way of its satisfactory 
accomplishment. The annals of early ages are meagre, con- 
fused, and contradictory; for the doggrel of bards and the songs 
of senachies were but sorry substitutes for written documents. 
If the historian of the rise and progress of nations has reason 
to find fault with the scanty nature of the materials placed at 
his command, with how much greater justice may the same 
complaint be preferred by him whose literary labours are con- 
fined to detailing the annals of a district. But as no amount 
of murmuring will mend the matter, we must even proceed 
to make the most of those materials which the assiduity 
of others has transmitted to our hands — embodying at the 



2 THE HISTOEY 

same time sundry topics, which may or may not be deemed 
interesting and important; but which, notwithstanding the 
researches of our modern writers, have somehow or other 
escaped their notice. 

The Dobuni, a tribe of the ancient Britons, are supposed to 
have been the earhest inhabitants of this part of the country, 
and to have occupied the district now known as the counties 
of Oxford and Gloucester. They were often at feud with the 
Coritani, another powerful race who inhabited the territory on 
their north-eastern boundary ; and in common with every other 
branch of the great Celtic family, they set little value u])on life, 
but had a keen regard for their honour. Eather than become 
the slaves or prey of a victor tribe, such was their love of liberty 
and independence, that they have even been known to immolate 
their wives, their children, and themselves. 

The chief town of the Dobuni was situated where Cirencester 
now stands, and those of the Coritani occupied the present 
sites of Lincoln and Leicester. But even the capitals of both 
the tribes were mere assemblages of huts huddled together in 
confusion — built of wicker-work and clay, or else of earth and 
the trunks of trees, and covered with turf or the skins of wild 
beasts.^ The towns were generally surrounded by a ditch, and 
for greater security, were usually located either in a morass or 
the middle of a wood ; so that in the former case, the advance 
of an invader might be impeded, and in the latter, that the 
inhabitants might be aided in their purposes of defence. Still 
these habitations were superior to those of the generahty of 
barbaric nations, although far from being of such a con- 
struction as to satisfy the simplest requirements of modern 



OF BANBURY. 3 

times. "We know that the ancient Britons to a certain extent 
understood the arts of working metal, of moulding claj into 
articles of pottery, of shaping timber, of manufacturing cloth, 
and of making up that cloth into garments ; although it does 
not appear that they applied the knowledge they possessed, to 
any great extent, in the practical purpose of increasing the 
comforts of domestic life, or in adding to the number of home 
enjoyments. 

The religion which they professed was that of the Druids, 
who are generally believed to have accompanied the natives in 
their migrations from Gaul, and who exercised a great amount 
of influence over the minds of the common people, from the 
fact of their explaining the symbols of their mysterious creed 
to none but those who were to be initiated into all their rites. 
Like the idolaters of old, they worshipped in groves ; and the 
remains of their temples are to be found, even at this distant 
day, relieving the monotony of the dreary plain, or standing 
in the naked majesty of massive rocks upon some of " the high 
places^^ in the land. 

At Eollright, twelve miles from Banbury, on the borders of 
the two counties where the territories of the Dobuni and 
Cornavi joined, there may be seen one of the most perfect 
remains of a Druids' temple that is anywhere to be met with 
in the midland counties. The upright stones of which it is 
composed form nearly a perfect circle, the diameter being 104 
feet from east to west, and 108 from north to south. At a 
distance of eighty-four yards to the north-east of the circle, 
there stands a rock upwards of eight feet above the ground, 
and a little more than five feet broad, which, in consequence 



4 THE HISTORY 

of its massive proportions, the country people in the neigh- 
bourhood call the " king stone.'"' On the east are to be seen 
five upright pillars, some of which are nearly eleven feet high ; 
but the stone table generally found on the top of such erec- 
tions, if ever such was there, has either fallen down or been 
broken and removed. 

Prom the position of these stones, in leaning inwards as if 
they were laying their heads together, they have received the 
name of '^ the whispering knights. '^ Many lovers of the wild 
and wonderful would have us to believe that these " cromlechs" 
were used as sacrificial altars, and indeed, this was the opinion 
once generally held ; but subsequent researches have brought 
to light the purpose for which they they were really intended. 
The fact of the cap-stone — in nearly every instance where such 
a covering remains — being found with the flat side downwards, 
shows that it must have been ill adapted for the reception of 
sacrificial victims, and archaeologists are now nearly all agreed 
that these places were used as sepulchres by the early Britons. 
They are to be found in many places not only in Great Britain 
and Ireland, but also in the Channel Islands and throughout 
the northern continent of Europe. Their most common form 
consisted of three massive uprights, with the fourth side open, 
and roofed in by a large slab ; but they differ both in shape 
and in the number of the stones of which they consist. Mr. 
Lukis, who has personally explored upwards of twenty of these 
chambers of the dead, gives an interesting detail of a large 
one which he examined in the Isle of Guernsey. On remov- 
ing the various superincumbent strata, he found bones not only 
of men but of animals also, stones and troughs for grinding 



OF BANBURY. 5 

corn, and several jars of sun-baked earthenware, that were 
somewhat like those alluded to in Bohinson Crusoe. Prom the 
position of the cromlech at Rollright, what is more probable 
than that some mighty chief had chosen his last resting-place 
nigh the temple of his faith ? What more likely than that 
his faithful followers should have raised over his remains a 
structure which should thus have endured for ages after his 
very name was forgotten ? 

Here then was one of these roofless temples where, in remote 
ages, the votaries of a now forgotten superstition assembled 
for the performance of those mysterious rites with which we 
are but imperfectly acquainted. We know that they believed 
in sorcery and divination, and we have heard that they oc- 
casionally, though it may have been rarely, offered up human 
victims in sacrifice. Those who have most deeply studied their 
character and manners are of opmion that the victims 
thus immolated were criminals, who by the transgression 
of the precepts which must ever regulate society had for- 
feited their lives to their country's laws. This is highly 
probable, as the Druids were not only the priests, but also 
the law-givers and judges of the people — the arbiters in 
disputes and the referees by whom all quarrels were decided. 

In the neighbourhood of Banbury, there are many other 
remains belonging to the time of the ancient Britons. There 
is a camp at Tadmarton, five miles from Banbury, the diameter 
of which is about two hundred yards. There is that on the 
castle hill at Brailes, between eight or nine miles from Ban- 
bury, and another at Gredenton, an eminence connected with 
the range at Dassett. In the parish of Swalchffe, there is a 



6 THE HISTORY 

camp at Madmarston, which contains an area of about five 
acres. We find another at Nadbury, in Eatley parish, which 
commands an extensive prospect across the vale of Avon. 
There are the remains of a camp at Ilbury, about six miles 
south-west from Banbury, and two in Northamptonshire — ■ 
one of which is on Harbury hill, and the other on a rising 
ground at Eainsborough. The sites of nearly all of these 
may be seen from Crouch Hill — that commanding little 
eminence a short way westward from the town — ^which, as 
much of it consists of what is called "made earth/' was 
probably made use of as a signal station. 

These remains indicate the state of things existing in the 
district, when the Eomans under Julius Caesar invaded 
England, fifty years before the birth of Christ, and after a 
brief and bloody struggle succeeded in establishing a short- 
lived government. The Dobuni were at that time sufl'ering 
from the incursions of some of their predatory neighbours, and 
welcomed the Eoman army as friends and deliverers. When 
the demon of domestic discord recalled her legions for the 
defence of Eome, their departure was witnessed by this portion 
of the natives with regret ; and when another army was sent 
over into Britain, during the reign of the emperor Claudius, in 
the year 43, they were again received by the Dobuni as welcome 
allies. This expedition was under the command of Plautius, 
and was more successful than the former in subjugating a 
considerable portion of the island. The territory of the 
Dobuni thus came to be incorporated with the first Eoman 
province that was estabhshed in the island of Great Britain. 

In consequence of the friendship existing between the army 



OP BANBURY. 



of Italy and the original inhabitants of the district under 
notice, there are not so many traces left in the immediate 
neighbourhood to mark the presence of the Eoman cohorts, 
as are still to be found in the northern parts of the kingdom 
where their safety was imperilled by surrounding foes. No 
earthen mounds are here to be met with, proclaiming the 
sites of their mouldering fortifications, and no turret-studded 
rampart runs from sea to sea; yet abundant evidence is 
handed down to us that whether Banbury was or was not the 
Branavis of the Eomans, it was no unimportant station of that 
army by whose peerless prowess the Eoman eagles were borne 
from victory to victory — from the wilds of Caledonia to the 
walls of Jerusalem. The number of the Eoman coins and 
other antiquities which have been dug up from time to time, 
the discovery of the altar-stone which gave its name to an inn 
now displaced by the Baptist chapel, the tesselated pavements 
of Eoman villas which have occasionally been brought to light 
by those engaged in the operations of agriculture, the numerous 
funeral urns that have been found throughout the whole extent 
of the surrounding district and which must have marked the 
sites of Eoman sepulchres, all bear unerring testimony to the 
fact that the Eoman nation and the Eoman name must have 
had many a representative in this locality. 

Then there is the amphitheatre in the Bear Garden, where 
the gladiatorial encounters were wont to take place; and 
where those feats of agility, strength, and skill, which rendered 
the Eoman soldier so terrible in the hand-to-hand conflicts 
which then decided battles, were exhibited in the presence of 
applauding spectators. The arena is 135 feet in breadth, and 



8 THE HISTOEY 

in the form of a semicircle cut out in the face of a rising 
ground fronting the north. There are three terraces on the 
slope which are respectively twenty-five, forty, and sixty feet 
from the arena, thus affording accommodation to about two 
thousand lookers-on. Go, view that grassy recess at the south- 
west corner of the town, and call to mind the ages that have 
passed away since the warriors of old contended there for the 
mastery! Survey that spot with hallowed care! People 
it again, as it was wont to be of yore, with the chosen chivalry of 
Eome ! and it will at once appear that Banbury must have 
been an important station even then, as it was only at such 
that these extensive amphitheatres were formed. 

But the era arrived at length, when dissensions within the 
state, and assaults by the Goths and Huns from without, 
hastened the downfal of that mighty empire which had taken 
centuries to construct, and which was built up of so many 
nations. Foreign wars had drained Eome of her most daring 
sons, and the enervating influence of luxurious indulgence 
had enfeebled the others who remained at home. The love of 
conquest lured her warriors on, until the northern barbarians 
were thundering at her gates, and the absent legions were 
recalled in all haste for the defence of the capital, leaving the 
extremities of the kingdom to shift for themselves. In the 
year 448, the Eomans bade a. last adieu to Great Britain, 
after having held undisputed sovereignty over the fairest and 
most fertile portion of the island for a period approaching to 
four hundred years. 

No sooner had the cohorts withdrawn from the southern 
shores of the kingdom, than an irruption of Picts and Scots 



OF BANBURY, U 

swept over the now defenceless territory. Twice did the 
Eomans send a legion over from Gaul to the assistance of 
their friends; but on the third application, they had none to 
spare. In this dilemma, it was agreed to invite the Saxons to 
their aid; and in 449, or 450, the brothers Hengist and 
Horsa landed in the Isle of Thanet with 1600 men. The 
cure was found, however, to be worse than the disease— for 
they who thus came as allies to befriend, soon afterwards began 
to subdue as conquerors. Fresh armies ariived under different 
leaders, and laid the foundation of " the seven kingdoms.^' 

It is only with that of Mercia that we have now to deal ; 
and this^ the largest of the states in the Heptarchy, was 
neither founded nor sustained without a considerable efl'usion 
of blood. Such of the accient Britons as would not yield 
obedience to the Saxon were driven westward with tremendous 
slaughter. Although beaten at every point by their more 
martial antagonists, they still gallantly contested each inch 
of ground ; and on their retreat into Oxfordshire from the 
counties of Northampton and Bucks, the Cherwell offered a 
favourable position of defence. The baffled Britons were 
again driven back, but not till the water run crimson to the 
Isis, when some hundreds of the boldest threw themselves into 
the Eoman fort at Banbury with the stern resolve to sell their 
lives as dearly as possible. How long they withstood the 
fierce onslaught of the Saxon, how they fought and how 
they fell, the histories of the time fail to inform us; but 
the contest appears to have been obstinate and severe. 
After the Britons had been driven into the mountain 
fastnesses of Wales, the district was still far from being in a 



10 THE HISTORY 

peaceful state; for from the commencement of the seventh 
century to the early part of the ninth, it was the scene of 
many a struggle between the kings of Mercia and "West 
Saxony, until the year 827, when Egbert, the sovereign of the 
latter state, succeeded in uniting the scattered kingdoms of 
England into one, 

A new enemy now appeared in the persons of the Danes, 
who from this time managed to keep the Saxons in perpetual 
hot water; until Canute succeeded in vanquishing them 
at last, and a Danish king reigned over England. But 
before the prince of Denmark's arms were finally victorious, 
many a deadly struggle took place between his followers and 
those of the then possessors of the soil. One of these was 
fought at Danesmoor near Edgcott, a second in the neighbour- 
hood of flook Norton, a third at Tadmarton, where a terrible 
conflict is reported to have taken place, and several others of 
lesser consequence in different parts of the district. Erom the 
years 1017 to 1041, Canute and his two sons occupied the 
throne in succession ; after which the Saxon line of monarchs 
was restored in the person of Edward the Confessor. Brief, 
however, was the period of this restoration ; for on the 14th of 
October, 1066, the Saxons met with a tremendous overthrow 
upon the field of Hastings, and Wilham Duke of Normandy 
became England's King. 



OF BAXBUEY. 11 



CHAPTEE II. 
iFcom tje Conquest to ^lantatjenet. 

Situation of the Town. — Origin of its Name. — Norman Appropriations. — = 
t)eddiDgton Castle. Calthorpe Manor, and others. — Saxon Disaffection — Re- 
moval of the Bishopric to Lincoln — Kings and Bishops.-^Foundation of the 
Castle. — Erection of the Church. — The King and Bishops disagree. — Civil War. 

•HE town of Banburj is principally in Oxfordshire, liav-' 
ing the suburb known as Grimsbury in the adjoining 
county of Northampton. It is built on the western bank of the 
Clierwell — a rivulet which has its source at Charwelton, near 
Daventry, in the last named county, joins North Oxfordshire 
near the village of Claydon, flows past Cropredy, intersects the 
parliamentary borough of Banbury, skirts the parishes of East 
Adderbury and Deddington, and finally mingles with the Isis 
at Oxford. 

With regard to the origin of the name of Banbury, antiqua- 
rians £ntertain great differences of opinion. In order to par- 
ade their logic and their lore, they advance the most improb- 
able and absurd theories, which they maintain with as much 
earnestness, volubility, and zeal, as if something really impor- 
tant depended thereon. But as none of these gentlemen were 
present at the christening, we shall content ourselves with 
adopting the theory that appears most reasonable. The Saxons 
called it Banesbyngj and what does that mean? The word 
Bane is genuine Saxon, signifying ruin, loss, slaughter, or 



12 THE HISTORY 

destruction ; whilst lyrig simply means a town or place of 
refuge and defence. When the ancient Britons retired west- 
ward before the Saxon invaders, as narrated in the previous 
chapter, they manfully defended the banks of the Cherwell ; 
and when driven from these, they threw themselves into the 
old Eoman fort, which in all probability occupied the site of 
the future castle. In storming a strong position like this, 
the Saxons must have sustained a heavy loss, and spoke of 
the place as " Slaughter-Town" ever afterwards. 

The Normans were now, however, lords of the ascendant ; 
and in Doomsday Book the name is recorded as Banesberie, 
Most of the property in Banbury at that time belonged to the 
bishop of Dorchester as superior lord, and the Conqueror did 
not dare to alienate the property of the church; but that 
which had previously been in the possession of such Saxon 
nobles as had followed their monarch to the field of Hastings 
— or which appertained to those who subsequently opposed 
the Conqueror^s progress — was ruthlessly confiscated, and 
bestowed by the king upon his Norman adherents. The 
manor of Deddington, along with many others, was given to 
his half-brother Odo, earl of Kent and bishop of Bayeux, who 
either built the castle there, or added greatly to the strength 
of its fortifications. The manor of Calthorpe, in the immediate 
vicinity of Banbury, was bestowed on a Captain Danvers, one 
of the followers of the Norman baron D'Oyley. The earl of 
Mercia — the Saxon proprietor of Adderbury and Bloxhara — 
at first aided the Conqueror in his work of subjugation ; but 
in consequence of some real or fancied insult, he withdrew 
from the Norman cause, and joined the men of the north, who 



OF BANBUEY. IS 

yet remained in the field in arms against the invader. On 
this account, his estates were confiscated, and the property 
referred to passed at once into the monarch's immediate pos- 
session. The baron D'Oyley, founder of the castle at Oxford, 
was presented with the manors of Tadmarton, Hook Norton, 
and about forty others ; whilst that of Broughton was con- 
ferred upon Berenger of Todenham. These and other aliena- 
tions of property led to much turmoil and contention; for 
the repression of which and for the purpose of overawing the 
refractory, the most severe and arbitrary measures were adopted; 
but generations went down to the last resting-place of man, 
before the subjugated Saxons submitted in peace to the 
stringent exactions of their feudal lords. 

The bishop of Dorchester, lord paramount of Banbury, died 
a year or two after the conquest, and was succeeded by the Nor- 
man Eemigius de Feschamp. Tlie death of the former pre- 
late in all likelihood saved him from the deposition which 
awaited nearly the whole of his Saxon brethren, whose 
sympathies were doubtless on the side of their countryjuen ; 
for with the exception of Wulstan, bishop of Worcester, the 
whole of them were degraded from the episcopal office. It 
was the policy of all the sovereigns of the Norman line — the 
more effectually to check what was called "the turbulent 
spirit of the people" — to take care that no Saxon-born subject 
should, under any pretence, be raised to offices of trust, 
emolument, or power. 

A synod was held in London shortly subsequent to the 
period of which we now treat, for the purpose of settling the 
precedence of the episcopal sees, and for removing the seat of 



14 THE HISTOEY 

some of them from insignificant villages to considerable towns. 
In accordance with the decision of this clerical assembly, 
Lincoln became the seat of the diocese, instead of the old- 
fashioned little tow7i on the bank of the Thames, and bishop 
Eemigius laid the foundation of Lincoln cathedral. 

Whilst the king was conducting a campaign in Prance, he 
was so severely injured by the sudden shying of the steed he 
bestrode, as to cause his being consigned to that couch from 
which he never rose. His half-brother Odo, the earl and 
bishop, had been imprisoned in Normandy on a charge of 
having intrigued for the attainment of the papal throne; but 
he was released from custody by the dying monarch, who left 
his Norman dukedom to his eldest son, whilst to his second 
he bequeathed the crown of England. 

William Eufus accordingly ascended the throne in 1087 ; 
and in 1092, Eemigius bishop of Lincoln slept with his fathers. 
It was the practice of the reigning sovereign, when a bishopric 
became vacant, to allow it to remain so for a series of years, 
during which period the revenues of the see were quietly 
appropriated to the royal exchequer ; but in this instance, the 
fortunate successor does not appear to have been kept waiting 
so long " for dead men's shoes,'' as he received his ring and 
crozier, the symbols of his investment, in the early part of 
the following year. It must, however, be borne in mind, 
that he was already chancellor to the king ; so it is by no 
means improbable, that there was a perfect understanding 
between them, and that for his ready compliance with regard 
to the appointment, some portion at least of the bishop's 
revenues found its way into the monarch's coffers. It was 



OF BANBUEY. 15 

thus thai Eobert Bloet was raised to the dignity of bishop of 
Lincoln ; and among his first acts was to give away what was 
not precisely his own — for he granted the tithes of the rectories 
of Banbury and Cropredy to enrich the wealthy abbey of 
Ensham. 

Nearly every body knows that ifl the year 1100, the red- 
headed king was killed in the New Forest by an arrow ; and 
that, although his elder brother Eobert duke of Normandy was 
alive, Henry, the third son of the Conqueror, contrived by a 
hasty gallop from the forest glades to secure at once the royal 
treasure and the throne. He confirmed by charter the previous 
grant of tithes to the abbey, and thus the well-endowed rectory 
of Banbury sunk into an indifferently-remunerated vicarage. 
In 1123, the bishop was on a visit to his Majesty at Wood- 
stock, and wMst enjoying the pleasures of the chase, he was 
thrown from his horse and so severely injured as to survive 
the accident a very few days. 

Alexander de Blois was the next bishop of Lincoln and 
contributed largely to the prosperity of Banbury. The eleva- 
tion of his uncle to the see of Sarum, some sixteen years prior to 
this, had involved the king in a quarrel with pope Paschal 11. 
which had led to the temporary withdrawal of primate Anselm 
from the kingdom. The rupture had at length been put an 
end to by the interference of mutual friends as well as by the 
sootliing influence of mutual concessions ; and there is every 
reason to believe, it was through this uncle's influence that 
Alexander was elevated to the see of Lincoln. The new 
bishop appears to have been a little man, exceedingly fond of 
ostentation and display, — one who devoted a great portion of 



16 THE HISTORY 

the revenue of liis diocese to the erection of castles and to 
building churches, as if he were determined to leave enduring 
memorials behind him which would hand down his name to a 
remote posterity. 

Two years after his consecration at Canterbury, which took 
place in 1123, the bishop laid the foundation of Banbury castle 
— an edifice which must of necessity have added largely to the 
ancient importance of the good old town. Exclusive of the 
outworks and exterior defences, which were probably added at 
a more recent date, it occupied nearly an acre of ground, and 
stood on the spot, to the north of the Market-Place, now 
known as the "Castle Gardens." It was defended by a 
battlemented wall, constructed of stone, surmounted by towers 
of a like description, and surrounded by a moat, over wliich a 
drawbridge conducted the visitor to the iron-studded gate. It 
was divided into two courts by a wall of a similar character 
with the former, but running due east and west, and. having a 
strongly-defended gateway in the centre. In the innermost 
or northern court, the episcopal mansion reared its castellated 
walls, and was no doubt replete with such luxuries as could be 
furnished by the capabilities of a semi-barbarous age. The 
bishop's domestics and all the high officials of his retinue 
were accommodated with lodgings in the principal mansion, 
whilst the retainers and men-at-arms were quartered in the 
towers over the gateways, or in the turrets at the angles of the 
walls. This then was Banbury castle — the portals of which, 
as we shall have occasion to shew in the course of the present 
narrative, were ever ready to receive a friend, or frown a stern 
defiance on a foe. 



OF BANBURY. 17 

But there was one building in connection with the castle 
which must neither be overlooked nor forgotten. It was a 
large square stone keep, placed nearly in the centre of the 
outer yard, and was used as a prison for special delinquents. 
In the ages of which we treat, there were few except those con- 
nected with the church who could either read or write ; and 
so highly were these acquirements then held in estimation, that 
if a culprit possessed of clerkly skill had been convicted of 
any crime save two, by the justiciaries or ordinary tribunal, he 
still had the power of appealing to the clergy, and of demand- 
ing a fresh trial " by his peers.'"' It was for that class of 
criminals that this prison was erected ; and either from the 
fact that " a fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind," or that 
they had previously been convicted on insufficient testimony, 
certain it is that the judgment of "the court below" was 
repeatedly reversed. As education progressed, it was found 
necessary to abrogate the privilege, and hence arose the ex- 
pression of condemning an accused person " without benefit 
of clergy." 

The magnificent old church at Banbury, which was removed 
in 1790 to make room for the present commodious but 
unsightly edifice, was commenced if not entirely built by the 
same prelate. It was a cathedral -looking structure in the 
Gothic style, sixty-four yards in length on the inside, by 
twenty seven in breadth, with a cross aisle measuring thirty- 
four yards in length. At the spot vv^here this aisle intersected 
the nave, there was a lofty square tower, surmounted by eight 
carved and fretted pinnacles. In this was suspended a peal 
of six bells, whose silvery sounds were wont to sweep over hill 



18 THE HISTOEY 

and dale — summouing tlie worshippers to tlie house of prayer 
•—^itself the noblest feature in the landscape. 

King Henry was fonder of lampreys than was good for his 
health, and having indulged to excess in his favourite dish, 
the consequences brought him to an untimely end. He died 
in Normandy in 1135, after having bequeathed his kingdom 
to his daughter Matilda, and taken, as he thought, every 
necessary precaution to secure her succession to the throne. 
But the breath had scarce taken its departure from the royal 
clay, ere his nephew Stephen — his sister^s son — hurried over 
to England as fast as sails and oars could impel him, and 
hesitated not in his rapid route until he found himself within 
the walls of London. His brother the bishop of Winchester 
gained the prelate of Sarum over to support the usurper^s 
cause, and the two prevailed upon the archbishop of Canterbury 
to officiate at the coronation. In return for these good offices, 
the king appointed the bishop of Lincoln lord high treasurer 
of the kingdom ; but in 1138, when a rebellion was raised in 
Matilda^s favour, he appears to have suspected the fidelity of 
both uncle and nephew. The bishop of Sarum, like his 
relative of Lincoln, had a wonderful jpencTiant for building 
castles — as he had constructed one at Sherborne, a second at 
Devizes, and a third was in course of erection at Malmesbury. 
The king was at Oxford after the battle of the Standard, and 
taking advantage of a fray between the retainers of the earl of 
Brittany and those of the bishop of Sarum, which occurred 
within the precincts of the court, he threw both Alexander 
and his uncle into prison, and commanded them under threats 
of instant punishment to deliver up their fortresses into his 



OF BANBTJEY. 19 

hand. After an imprisonment of several months^ duration 
they complied with the unseemly demand ; but the bishop of 
Winchester, the king's brother, having now been appointed 
the pope's legate, summoned his sovereign to a synod at 
Westminster, at which Aubrey de Yere appeared for the king 
and charged the two bishops with being guilty of high treason. 
The court, however, refused to entertain the charge until the 
castles should have been restored to their owners ; and civil 
war being imminent at the moment, the king thought it the 
most prudent course to comply with the demand — so the 
prelates in question got back their possessions. Prom that 
period to the date of his death, our bishop meddled no more 
in political affairs, so that Banbury was spared from many of 
the horrors resulting from a barbarous internecine war. 

Whilst on a visit to pope Eugene III. whom he met in 
France in 1147, Alexander was seized by a malady which 
terminated in death ; but before his dissolution, he managed, 
although not without difficulty, to return to Banbury, and his 
remains were interred in the church which he had founded. 
This event took place in 1148, and Eobert Chesney was the 
next bishop. The record is extant in which Eugene confirmed 
to this prelate the possessions of his see, and among these 
special mention is made of the castle, market, and liberties of 
Banbury. 

During the period of which we treat, the whole country 
was convulsed with the atrocities of war. King Stephen is at 
one moment on the pinnacle of pride — at the next, he is a 
dosely-confined captive at Gloucester — anon, we find him at 
the head of a triumphant army, wading back through fields of 



^0 THE HISTORY 

carnage to his throne. To-day, Matilda is enthusiastically 
acknowledged as England's queen — to-morrow, she is an exile 
and a lonely wanderer. But a compromise was happily come 
to at length, between the usurper and Matilda's son, by which 
it was agreed that the former should reign unmolested during 
life, and should be succeeded by Henry the lawful heir. In 
1134, Stephen was summoned to a higher bar, and without 
opposition, the second Henry ascended the throne. 



CHAPTER III. 
from 'ftenrg M. U lEtsi^jatti MI. 

The State of tlie People — Fairs and Markets. — The Swcrd and the CrozieT. 
— The Battle of Alnwick. — Coenr de Lion. — The Hospitium of St. John and 
Hospital of St. Leonard. — The Barons at Brackley.— The Priory of Wroxton. 
—The Banbury Bailiff.—More Taxes.— The Holy Wells.— Broughton Castle. 
— Sir Piei's Gaveston at DedJington. — The Knight of Wickham. — Provisions 
regulated by Act of Parliament- 

'HE house of Plantagenet having succeeded thus quietly 
to the supreme power in England, it may not be deemed 
a digression if we enquire for a moment into the actual state 
and condition of the great bulk of the people, during the 
reigns of the Norman kings. Except in the instance of the 
former conquest of the greater portion of the island by the 
Saxons, it would be difficult to find a parallel case, or one in 
which the native inhabitants were so completely subdued, and 
their possessions so thoroughly alienated to the victors. 



OF BANBURY. 21 

Contumely and insult were added to plunder, crueltj^, and 
wrong; until the subjugated Saxons were but too bapp}^, if by 
the performance of the most menial services, they could only 
gain the favour of their feudal oppressors. Many of the nobility 
— who, by the bye, had been just as despotic towards the 
serfs under their rule as the Norman conquerors were with 
them — lied to other lands, to escape the penalties they were 
exposed to in their own. 

This was decidedly " the age of Castle Building ;" and 
many of those grim old fortresses, whose crumbling ruins 
frown over the landscape, with many others whose sites are 
known only to the archaeologist and antiquarian, owe their 
origin to the era we have endeavoured to describe, reared as 
they were by the horny hands of Saxon bondsmen, cemented 
with their blood, and watered by their tears. In addition to 
those already enumerated, may be mentioned the castles of 
Chipping Norton, Chipping Warden, Culworth, Brackley, 
King^s Sutton, and many others in the district to which allusion 
might be made. These, in many instances, were mere dens of 
robbers; who carried on a system of wholesale plunder, and 
whose only virtue was that of regularity — but it was a regularity 
in levying forced contributions. So that when wo talk of 
the " good old times,^' it would perhaps be as well to recollect 
that these " good old times^' had some disagreeable concomi- 
tants, and that every era brings its own troubles. 

In 1157, Henry granted a charter to bishop Chesney em- 
powering him to hold in Banbury an annual fair which was to 
continue throughout the whole of the "VVhitsun-week ; and all 
persons were forbidden, under the penalty of £1 0, from dis- 



22 THE HISTOEY 

turbing tliose wlio were trading tliereat, either on their journey 
to the town, or on their return to their respective dweUings. 
The same monarch, three years subsequent to this, renewed a 
previous charter, granting to the bishop the right of free 
warrenry in his Banbury estate, and forbidding every other 
person to poach in his preserves, under a penalty of £10 ; 
which, as it was equal to £100 of our money, must have been 
looked upon as a most stringent game law. 

It is highly probable that a weekly market had been estab^ 
Hshed in the town considerably antecedent to this period ; but 
we find it now first officially alluded to in a royal proclamation, 
in which Henry apprises the justices that he has given per- 
mission to the bishop of Lincoln to hold a market "in his town 
of Banbury," after the custom of other market towns. Thus 
the rising prosperity of the locality whose chronicles of the 
past we are now endeavouring to record, in all probabiHty gave 
a check to the importance of King's Sutton, where the weekly 
market for the district had been hitherto held. 

The spiritual and temporal powers of the kingdom were now 
sadly at variance — the " Constitution of Clarendon," whereby 
clerical offenders were subjected to magisterial jurisdiction, 
forming the present subject of dispute. Thomas a Becket^ 
backed by the whole strength of a powerful and united hierar- 
chy, had succeeded in establishing a clerical kingdom in the 
state, wholly irrespective of the temporal power, and with this 
imperium in imperio, Henry found it both difficult and 
dangerous to contend. His ministers had been excommuni- 
cated by name, and the thunders of the church's censure 
were about to be discharged upon his own head. In this 



OP BANBURY. 23 

critical juncture, the bishop of Lincoln was gathered to his 
fathers, and the king, not knowing whom he could trust 
bestowed the bishopric upon Geoffrey, his own illegitimate son 
bj '*fair Eosamond" the lord Clifford's daughter. This 
youthful prelate was bishop of Lincoln, and consequently lord 
paramount of Banbury, from 1167 to 1183, when he was 
translated to the archbishopric of York. Like many other 
ecclesiastical dignitaries of the time, his hand grasped the 
sword as readily as the crozier, and the helmet graced his brow 
as frequently as the mitre. In 1174, when many of the 
nobles were in open rebellion, WiUiam king of Scotland, 
taking advantage of the turmoil, invaded England at the head 
of 80,000 men. The warlike prelate summoned his vassals 
to the field, and by forced marches hurried down to the north, 
to effect a junction with the justiciary Ealph de Glanville. 

The king of Scots lay encamped at Alnwick, wholly uncon- 
scious of the vicinity of a foe, when on a misty morning in 
July, the bishop and De Glanville, riter a night march of 
above thirty miles, burst like a thunder-cloud upon the Scotch 
camp. WilHam hastily called together a half-accoutred hand- 
ful of horse, and in order to give his men a few minutes to 
get under arms, made a spirited dash with this small force 
against those who had so unceremoniously disturbed his 
slumbers, and who were still engaged with the picquets at the 
outworks of the camp. But at the first shock, he was un- 
horsed and taken prisoner, and the scattered cavalry spread 
the panic through the half-awakened but terror-stricken array. 
This skirmish — for it was nothing more — furnishes us with the 
first instance in which the spearmen of Banbury came in 



24 THE HISTOEY 

collision with llie mailed tartans of the north ; and if we may 
judge by the results of the action, or by the undoubted prowess 
of their clerical leader, their conduct must liave been worthy of 
their birthplace, as the routed clansmen never rallied till they 
were north of the Tweed. 

In 1183, Walter Constance succeeded Geoffrey in the 
Lincoln episcopate; and three years afterwards, Hugh of 
Grenoble was appointed to the once more vacant chair. This 
prelate appears to have been a most zealous worker, in more 
senses of the word than one ; for when he set about restor- 
ing the cathedral at Lincoln, he is said to have personally 
assisted as a mason's labourer, and thus to have set an example 
of diligence to those employed in the work of renovation, by 
himself carrying the hod. 

On the 6th of July, 1189, at Chinon in Normandy, Henry 
11. died from the effects of overwhelming sorrow, which had 
thrown him into a lingering fever. He was succeeded by his 
son Eichard Coeur de Lion ; who, in the month of June in 
the following year, took his departure for the crusades, in 
company -^dth Philip of Prance and several other European 
potentates. On his return from the Holy Land, in the winter 
of 1192,8, Eichard was ungenerously arrested by Leopold of 
Austria, loaded with chains, and consigned to a dungeon in 
the heart of Germany. He was ransomed by the payment of 
a sum equal to about £300,000, and his arrival in England, 
in March, 1194, was welcomed by his subjects with heartfelt 
enthusiasm. Tournaments were everywhere held in honour 
of the king's return, and one of these is recorded as having 
taken place on the banks of the Ouse near Brackley. The 



OF BANBURY. 25 

spot where the tournament was held is a level piece of land 
in the parish of Evenley, and is still called Bayard's Green. 
It is not stated that Eichard himself was at the " passage of 
arms" in question ; but when the monarch's predilections are 
taken into consideration, it is by no means improbable that he 
was present and took part in the mimic fray. 

At the siege of Chalos, in 1199, the lion-hearted king was 
wounded by an arrow, and a bungling surgeon caused the 
injury to prove mortal. He bequeathed the kingdom to his 
brother John, to the exclusion of his nephew, an elder brother's 
son ; but these unimportant aberrations from the direct line 
of descent were by no means uncommon in the not very 
particular era of which we are treating. 

It was now that the local JiospUium of St. John was founded. 
It was erected on the south-eastern side of the south gate of 
Banbury, on the spot where the ivy-mantled convent stands. 
Indeed, there is good reason for believing that this building, 
which is now occupied by the Sisters of Mercy, at one time 
formed a portion of the structure in question, and was erected 
shortly prior to the period of the lieformation. The term 
"hospital" is apt to mislead. Buildings known by that 
name are generally devoted to the reception of patients suffer- 
ing under certain forms of disease ; but the Jwspiiia of our 
forefathers had a much wider signification. They were 
frequently largely endowed, for the purpose of dispensing the 
hospitality of departed benevolence — " hospitality," a word 
which owes its origin to these very institutions. Here, it is 
true, when the poor required them, they were supplied not only 
with medicines, but with other necessaries of which, perhaps. 



26 THE HISTOUY 

they stood even still more largely in need. Here the helpless, 
the aged, and the indigent were ever certain of meeting 
with succour. Here, too, the wants of the wayfarer were 
relieved, and liis heart was gladdened to speed on his journey. 

But they were not without their proper hospitals also. 
They had institutions which in this respect were similar to 
our own — specially adapted for the reception of patients 
suffering under those specific forms of disease to which from 
their habits they were chiefly exposed. That terrible scourge, 
the leprosy — sent by an indulgent Heaven to teach mankind 
the wholesome lesson that " Cleanliness is next to godliness" 
— oft laid the strong man low, and struck the mother down 
amid her weeping ofi'spring. As the Hebrew lawgiver enacted of 
old, that " He that hath the plague of leprosy shall be defiled ; 
he is unclean ; he shall dwell alone ; without the camp shall 
his habitation be." So, at Grimsbury, the hospital of St. 
Leonards was erected for the reception and ])roper treatment 
of this class of patients. The period when it was founded 
has not been ascertained ; but the place where it stood is still 
denominated the 'Spital Parm. 

In the year 1200, being the first of the reign of king John, 
the priory of Wroxton was founded by Michael Belet, who 
bestowed upon the institution his manors situated at Wroxton 
and Thorpe, and whatsoever was or ought to be his, both at 
these places and in the village of Balscot. About the same 
time, the priory of Chacombe was founded, by Hugh one of 
the royal justiciaries of Normandy, who afterwards withdrew 
from the world and ended his days within the retirement of 
its walls. 



OF BANBUEY. 27 

In the course of the same year, bishop Hugh of Lincohi 
departed this life, and the. vacancy does not appear to have 
been filled up until the appointment of William de Blois, 
which seems to have taken place about 1203. At this period, 
the country around Crouch hill was covered with wood, and 
a charter was granted to the new bishop, authorising him to 
enclose this land ; to cut, root out, or sell this timber, not- 
withstanding any objections that the foresters or verderers 
might raise. 

In the meanwhile, by his cowardice and cruelty, king John 
had thoroughly alienated the affections of his people ; whilst 
owing to his indolence, he had allowed nearly the whole of his 
Norman possessions to be wrested from his grasp by the Prench 
king. He quarrelled with the clergy to such a degree that 
when the bishopric of Lincoln became vacant in 1206, he 
knew not oue upon whom he might safely confer the see. 
The kingdom was laid under an interdict by pope Innocent 
in. and the bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester were 
ordered by the court of Rome to excommunicate their king — • 
a mandate which they obeyed in due form. Hugh of Wells, 
chancellor of the kingdom, was created bishop of Lincoln in 
1209; and under pretence of receiving consecration at the 
hands of the archbishop of Eouen, the newly-chosen prelate 
proceeded to Trance and tendered his submission to the exiled 
archbishop of Canterbury. A wise or a firm prince might 
have successfully opposed the gigantic innovations now 
attempted to be forced upon the country — more particularly if 
he enjoyed the good-will of his subjects — but John was unfor- 
tunately neither the one nor the other ; so that when danger 



28 THE HISTORY 

tlireatened, and a rrencli army was collected, with Paiidolf the 
Popov's dread legate at their head, he purchased peace by the 
most abject submission. 

At this period we find a family in the neighbourhood of 
Banbury rising to opulence and offices of command. To the 
baron of Broughton was confided the charge of the royal castle 
of Bridgnorth, and he was also made warden of the Welsh 
marches. When the nobles resolved that unalloyed despotism 
should triumph no longer, and that the kingly power in Eng- 
land should be restrained within due and proper bounds, the 
baron of Broughton stood aloof from the organisation and main- 
tained the cause of the yacillating monarch. On the festival 
of Easter, in 1215, the dissatisfied aristocracy assembled in 
Stamford to the number of two thousand knights, who with 
their armed retainers made a gallant show. Elated with their 
numbers, confident in their unanimity, and conscious of the 
power they could call to their aid, they proceeded towards 
Oxford where the court then was. On the 27th of April they 
arrived at Brackley, where they were met by messengers from 
the king. A council was summoned, and the embassadors 
declared that his majesty only wanted to know what those 
liberties were which they desired him to grant, and if consis- 
tent with the office he held, he would not stand in the way of 
his people's rights. A schedule was drawn up containing a 
list of their demands, and the messergers were instructed to 
lay this before the king. But when the document in question 
was submitted to tlie monarch, he flew into a right royal rage, 
and enquired why they did not ask him to give up his kingdom 
also ? He swore that he should never comply with their 



OF BANBUEY. 29 

requirements, as in sucli a case he could only be a slave or a 
puppet in their hands. 

The nobles then unfurled the banner of rebellion, and the 
king also summoned his adherents to his side. The baron of 
Broughton was ordered to raise four hundred Welshmen, and 
to repair with them to Salisbury plain, but before the day ap- 
pointed for the rendezvous, the faint hearted monarch had 
again given way ; and on the 1 9th of June, the Great Charter, 
which has proved the foundation of liberty in England, was 
signed and sealed upon the plain of Eunnymede. 

When the more immediate danger was over, and the armed 
barons had dispersed to their dwellings, John showed how 
little reliance was to be placed upon his word, by venting the 
full measure of his wrath upon some of those who had forced 
on him the obnoxious task of conceding to his people a modi- 
cum of libertj. We accordingly find that the lord Clavering 
of Aynho was dispossessed of his lands, as was also the seig- 
norial baron of Deddington. Whilst the king was passing 
from Lynn into Lincolnshire, in prosecution of his designs 
against the favourers of the charter, he lost his baggage and 
regalia in the sea — a misfortune which so aggravated a distem- 
per under which he was labouring, as to cause his death at 
Newark, on the 17th of October, 1216. Before, however, he 
went the way which even kings must go, he heaped high 
honours on the lord of Broughton. That nobleman was chosen 
high sheriff of the county of Herts, and had conferred upon 
him the town and manorial rights of Alton in Hampshire, 
together with large tracts of land in the counties of North- 
ampton, Leicester, and Gloucester. 



30 THE HISTOEY 

On his father's death, although only nine years of age, 
Henry III. was raised to the throne, and the earl of Pembroke 
chosen Protector of the kingdom. During the whole of this 
long reign, few events are recorded which could greatly afPect 
the district to which these annals refer. The power of De 
Broughton is now found upon the wane. The lands of New- 
ington had just been added to his vast possessions ; but when 
the papal bull declared the king of age, and the order followed 
for the nobles to render up to him all the royal forts, castles, 
and palaces, which during his minority had been entrusted 
to their care, we find that the earls of Chester and Albemarle 
refused to comply, and were backed by the lords De Lacy and 
De V Isle as well as the stalwart baron of Broughton, who 
vowed that he would never give up the castles of Woodstock 
and Bridgnorth. The consequence was that he was proclaimed 
a rebel; but when the primate threatened the recusants with 
the thunders of the church, they deemed compliance to be the 
wisest course, and the strongholds in question were given up 
to the king. 

We find king Henry twice renewing the charter by which 
the lands of Wroxton were vested in the priory, on condition 
that the canons therein " should serve the Lord for ever." 
Weekly markets were established and suppressed at Chipping 
Warden, King's Sutton, and Adderbury, with a proviso in each 
case that they should not injure the market at Banbury. We 
find the royal huntsmen and hounds lodged in state at Banbury 
castle, and the sheriff of the county enjoined to pay the two 
huntsmen twenty shillings apiece. We find mention first made 
of the prebend of Banbury in connection with Lincoln cathe- 



OP B ANBURY. 31 

dral, although probably established long before. Bui as none 
of these circumstances call for particular comment, suffice it 
merely to enumerate the successors to the episcopate of Lin- 
coln and lordship of Banbury. 

In 1235, Hugh de Wells was succeeded by big-headed 
Kobert, who notwithstanding his unprepossessing name, was 
one of the most learned and pious churchmen of the age. His 
death occurred in 1253, when he was succeeded by Henry of 
Lexington, whose term of office was of brief duration, for in 
1258, Richard of Gravesend was appointed to the vacant see. 

After the longest reign of any of our English kings, the 
third Henry succumbed to the last enemy of man, and in 1272, 
his son Edward I. was proclaimed. He was at that time on 
his return from the crusades, and did not land in England 
until two years afterwards. The poverty of the crown induced 
him to institute commissions of enquiry into all encroachments 
on the royal domains, and into the probable value of all 
escheats, forfeitures, and wardships. 

These commissioners give rather an unfavourable report as 
to the honesty of the bishop's constable in Banbury ; who, 
according to their statement, took the penny from each village 
in the hundred, on the ground that strict justice should be 
done to the people ; but he would give no account of the 
moiety of those pennies which should have been handed over 
to the royal treasurer. They report that a sheep-stealer 
named Gubbins was imprisoned in the castle, and although 
he was caught in the fact and the mutton found in his 
possession, the constable allowed him quietly to depart. The 
commissioners state that they did not know whether or not 



32 THE HISTORY 

the thief gave the constable a bribe to induce him to let him 
go ; but thej drily add, that the bishop's deputy retained 
property belonging to the prisoner, amounting to the value of 
27s. 6d. which was then worth more than a dozen sheep. 

They report also that a prisoner named WiUiam Basjate 
had been conhned in the castle on a charge of robbery ; but that 
he made his escape and sought sanctuary in the church. It 
was customary in those days that when a felon thus found 
refage at the altar, if he should confess his crime and consent 
to exile himself to a foreign land for life, the coroner of the 
district was to give him a passport to the nearest seaport, and 
this safeguard all men were bound to respect. Basjate had 
complied with all these requirements ; but whether our 
constable felt indignant with the culprit for breaking from 
his stronghold, or whether the latter had omitted to conciKate 
the official mind by an acceptable douceur , certain it is that the 
offender was waylaid on his journey to the coast, and left a 
headless trunk by the road -side. Por all these multiplied 
transgressions, the constable was let off for £20. 

The king obtained from parliament the grant of a fifteenth 
of all the moveable properly in the kingdom — rather a heavy 
income-tax ; from the merchants, an export duty of half-a-mark 
on every sack of wool sent out of the kingdom ; and from the 
pope, one tenth of the whole ecclesiastical revenues, for the 
space of the three next ensuing years. The bishops of 
Lincoln and Winchester were appointed his majesty's com- 
missioners for the assessment and collection of this latter 
grant, and we find the ecclesiastical revenue of the prebend of 
Banbury set down in the report at £30 a year^ the vicar's 



OF BANBURY. . 33 

salary at £6 J 3s. 4cl., and the annual value of the manor of 
Grimsburj — a portion of the good things pertaining to the 
priorj of Bicester — at nearly a like sum. It does not appear 
that the bishop made any return of the revenue arising from 
his own extensive possessions — an omission which might 
possibly arise from sheer forgetfulness of so material a portion 
of his own income, and not from any desire to evade the law. 

But the war with Scotland and Wallace drained the country 
of its resources and the king of his cash; so that we find an 
export duty of forty shillings a bale imposed upon wool, and 
the clergy mulcted in a fifth of their moveables. This led to 
another commission of enquiry, and so closely was it conducted 
in this locality that even the very hens and their eggs were 
numbered. Nor did the revenue of the bishop escape. In 
the town and adjacent hundred, this is set down in the return 
at £170 a year — a large sum in the era to which the date 
refers. 

At this period, great virtues were supposed to be inherent 
in chalybeate springs, to w^hich were attributed not only the 
medicinal property of the waters, but also the reputed sanctity 
of some particular saint. Thus at Astrop, we have St. 
Eumbold's well — whoever St. Eumbold may have been — a 
spring bubbling up by the side of the highway, closely 
adjoining the gamekeeper's house, and about midway between 
the mansion and village of King Sutton. In after times, this 
well became famous as the resort of upper class invalids — a 
sort of rival to Tunbridge and Bath — until the paternity of an 
illegitimate child was attributed to a fashionable physician, 
who ever afterwards took umbrage to the waters, and declared 



34 THE HISTORY 

that they were valueless for purposes of medicine. Then there 
was St. Stephen^s well, a short way westward from Banbury, 
and that of St. Botolph at the village of Earnborough — 
neither of which, it is true, was so popular as that of the 
rumbling saint ; still both would have their devotees and 
prilgrims to their shrine. So numerous were these towards 
the close of the century at which we are now arrived, and so 
heavy were the exactions on the church's patrimony in support 
of the helpless cripples who crowded thither in search of an 
exceedingly problematical cure, that bishop Oliver Sutton, 
who had succeeded to the episcopate of Lincoln about 1280, 
found it necessary to exert the authority of his office, and to 
prohibit the indigent from the practice of making "prilgrim- 
ages" to the so-called holy wells. 

In 1300, the bishopric of Lincoln again became vacant by 
the decease of the occupant of its honours, who was succeeded 
in the same year by John of AUerby. Sir Theobald Barro, the 
then prebend of Banbury, was promoted shortly afterwards to 
the bishopric of Liege, and the vacant stall was conferred upon 
the reverend Sir Hugh of Normanton, a Yorkshire divine, who 
was already one of the canons in Lincoln cathedral. But in 
consequence of a misunderstanding arising between the right 
reverend father and his ecclesiastical protege, the latter never 
entered on the duties appertaining to his new dignity, and the 
office was conferred on George Solar of Poreya. 

Sir "William Wallace had been beheaded on Tower-hill, 
and king Eobert Bruce unfurled the banner of Scotland's 
independence. The hardy sons of the north flocked to his 
standard, determined for their country to conquer or die. 



OF BANBUEY. 35 

Edward approached the Scottish borders with an army as 
gallant as ever followed a sovereign to the field of strife ; but 
on the 7th of July, 1307, wdien on the south bank of the 
Solway and within sight of the Caledonian shore, he wag 
summoned to a higher tribunal than his own by a messenger 
whose mandate would brook no delay. He was succeeded by 
his son the second Edward, who was in all things the reverse 
of his martial sire. 

It was about this period that Sir John of Broughton is 
supposed to have erected the first castle of that name — a 
structure which is situated about two miles and a half west- 
ward from Banbury. Most of the early building has been 
removed to make room for the present edifice, which belongs 
to tlie period of the first James ; but there is enough of the 
old castle incorporated with the new to denote its former 
strength, and to furnish us with indubitable evidence of its 
ancient importance. The south front belongs to what is 
called the Elizabethan order of architecture, and may be 
regarded as a favourable specimen of a fortified mansion 
appertaining to the latter period. Surrounded by a moat, 
and only accessible by a bridge which was defended by a gate- 
way tower of considerable strength, it was well calculated to 
hold an enemy at bay, in days when modern missiles w^ere 
unknown. Erom the slits of the battlemented wall, the 
bowmen, in comparative safety, could empty their quivers 
on exposed assailants ; but when the deep-booming cannon 
begun to play a part in the deadly game of vv^ar, Broughton 
became useless for a protracted defence. 

The feudal tenure, by \^^hich Sir John and his predecessors 



36 THE HISTORY 

held the property in question £i-om the crown, was that he 
should breed np a falcon for the king; and whenever the 
court should visit Woodstock, or any other royal residence 
within twenty miles, the owner of Bronghton was then to be 
in attendance, with the bird perched upon his wrist, in readi- 
ness to take part in the pastimes of the period. 

Leaving Sir John to build his castle, we must fly our falcon 
at higher game. The weak-minded monarch, by his lavish 
conduct towards Sir Piers Gaveston, a knight of Gascony, had 
lost the respect of many of his nobles, who had been publicl} 
insulted by the courtly favourite. Honours, titles, and wealth 
had been heaped upon this minion of the crown, until he held 
the English nobility in actual contempt, and rarely missed an 
opportunity of wounding their ambition or mortifying their 
pride. The earls of Lancaster, Warwick, Pembroke, and 
Hereford formed a powerful combination against the king and 
his favourite, and having raised an army, they proceeded at 
once to the north. Edv/ard left Gaveston in Scarborough 
castle, whilst he too should essay his fortune in the held, and 
Pembroke speedily laid seige to the fortress. The castle was 
indifferently supplied with provisions, and on the 19th of May, 
1312, Gaveston surrendered himself prisoner, on the express 
stipulation that for two months he should remain in Pembroke's 
custody alone ; and if, in the course of that period, a mutual 
accommodation was not brought about, he should then be 
restored to the castle of Scarborough, which, as to men and 
means, was to be put in the same condition in which it then 
was. To this condition, the earl of Pembroke pledged life 
and land; but small rehance was then to be placed on the 



OP BANBURY. 37 

most solemn promise of a foe, and tlie royal favourite was 
brought a close prisoner to Deddington castle, where lie was 
left in keeping of a slender garrison. 

The vengeful earl of Warwick, the mortal enemy of Gaves- 
ton, was no doubt informed by the captor as to how and 
where he had left his prisoner; for a night march brought 
the lord of Avondale with an imposing force to the castle 
gates. Acting probably under the orders of their chief, the 
garrison refused to offer resistance, and Gaveston was given 
up to the tender mercies of Warwick, to whom in the day of 
his prosperity he had applied the epithet, "the black dog of 
Arden." It must have been indeed a sorry sight to see one 
whom the king had long " delighted to honour" — one who 
had espoused the near relative of his sovereign — one who was 
earl of Cornwall at the time — one who had been lord-lieutenant 
of Ireland — one who had even filled the high ofiice of "Guar- 
dian of the Eealm" — mounted on a wretched apology for a 
mule, and dragged through the streets of Banbury amid the 
jeers of a ruffian soldiery. Yet after all, it was a just 
retribution; a degree of deserved vengeance which he had 
brought upon himself by his overweening pride in the day of 
his power. Thus was he conducted to Warwick castle, and 
there, without the slightest regard either for the laws of the 
land or the articles of capitulation under which he was surren- 
dered, his head fell by a blow of the executioner^s axe. 

On the 25th of June, 1314, the battle of Eannockburn, so 
fatal to many of England^s chivalry, was fougl it in the vicinity 
of Stirling castle. Among the prisoners taken on that 
eventful day, was John Segrave of Chacombe, a member of 



3S THE HISTORY 

parliament and high constable of Banbury, who had to pay 
a lumping sum for his ransom . 

In 1320, Henry Barwash was raised to the mitre and 
succeeded John of Allerby in the diocese of Lincoln. In the 
following year, the system of royal favouritism had again put 
the barons in commotion, and as the newly-consecrated prelate 
was suspected of favouring the cause of the insurgents, the 
sheriff of Oxfordshire was commanded to give the castle of 
Banbury into the safe keeping of Sir Eobert Arden of Wick- 
ham ; and all the military tenants of the bishop were enjoined 
on their allegiance, in all things to obey the knight of Wickham, 
as they would the king himself. 

Edward was now wholly under the influence of another 
favourite, Hugh le de Spencer, who is described as possessed 
of all those accomplishments so well adapted for captivating 
the mind of the silly king, and the consequence was, as 
already hinted, that another combination took place among 
the nobles. The king's cousin — the lord of six earldoms and 
head of the house of Lancaster — was at the bottom of the 
conspiracy ; so that his majesty found it necessary to summon 
all his forces to arms. Sir Eobert Arden was again entrusted 
with the royal commission, and in 1322,-3,-and-4, was 
empowered to raise the military array throughout the important 
counties of Oxford and Berks — a duty in which he gave 
satisfaction to the crown. In the battle of Boioughbridge, 
fought on the 16th of March, 1322, the rebels under Lancaster 
were wholly routed, their chief taken prisoner and led to the 
scaffold. 

The queen, forgetting the duties which she owed her 



OP BANBUrvY. 39 

husband, who with all his faults was her husband still, joined 
the league of the insurgents in 1825, and in the following 
year, aided by forces from the realm of her brother, she placed 
herself at the head of a rebel army, and took the field against 
him whom she had pledged herself to ^' honour and obey/' 
Edward, now thoroughly alarmed, fled to the west. Here he 
was disappointed of the assistance he expected to meet, and 
endeavoured to effect his escape into Ireland. In this hs was 
baffled by contrary winds, and on his return into Wales he 
was taken prisoner. He was confided to the custody of the 
earl of Leicester, who treated him with every mark of honour 
and respect so long as he remained a prisoner in Kenil worth 
castle ; but as this did not meet with the views of those who 
were now at the helm of affairs, he was removed to Berkeley 
on the banks of the Severn. Here, on the 21st of September, 
1327, he was put to death by a deed so atrocious as to stamp 
with infamy the character of the age. 

Among the most singular of the annals in this king^s reign 
was an attempt made by parliament to regulate the price of 
provisions by law. It was enacted that the price of the best 
stall-fed ox was not to exceed £3 10s., whilst £2 8s. was to 
be the highest price for an ordinary bullock. A two-year-old 
fat hog was set down at ten shillings ; an unshorn wether, 
five shilHngs, but if he had been shorn, the price was not to 
exceed 3s. 6^d. A fat goose was not to cost more than 7Jd. 
a fat capon 6d. and a fat hen 3d. Two chickens, four pigeons, 
or two dozen of eggs were not to exceed the last-named sum ; 
so that if it had not been for the scarcity of the '^ threepences," 
a working man, even at those " famine prices," might have 



40 THE HISTORY 

contrived to eke out a comfortable subsistence. But the 
inexorable law of political economy that supply and demand 
must ever regulate price, was not .long in bringing so clumsy 
an expedient to an end» 



CHAPTER lY. 

iFrom lEtitjarti MI, to f^cnrg IF. 

The first " Local Improvement" Charter. — Banbury jit the Royal Council 
Table. — The French Wars. — The Banbuiy Robin Hood — More Fighting — 
The Plague. — Richard II. — Enclosure of Crouch Hill. — Popular Insurrections. 
— Deposition of the King. 

•DWARD III.., a boy fifteen years of age> was now 
called on to ascend the throne; and in the first instance^ 
the government was confided to a council of regency. But the 
flagrant conduct of his mother, and the unconstitutional pro- 
ceedings of Mortimer her " friend/' induced the young king 
to take the management of affairs into his own hands, whicli 
he did three years afterwards, and Mortimer expiated his 
offences on a gibbet. 

In the first year of this king's reign, a charter was granted 
under the royal hand, addressed to the " good men of the town 
of Banbury," authorising them to pave the streets, and giving 
permission to levy tolls on all goods that might be brought 
into the town for sale. This authority was to continue for 
seven years ; but the period for levying these contributions 
was subsequently extended for three years longer, and although. 



OF BANBUET. 41 

the respective tolls may appear small to us, yet when the low 
price of material is taken into consideration, and coupled with 
the nominally small amount of remuneration then accorded to 
labour, it may reasonably be presumed that the gross sum 
received was found adequate for the purpose. 

Inasmuch as this charter may be regarded as the first step 
to the improvement of the town, it may not be out of place 
to enquire into the nature and characteristics of the merchan- 
dise on which tolls were authorised to be levied ; more parti- 
cularly as this will give us some little insight into the habits 
and modes of life which were then common with the people. 
A cask of wine, a bag of wool, or a quarter of woad, then 
extensively used in dyeing operations, was each ordered to 
contribute twopence to the rate. A penny was to be charged 
for every ten sheep, goats, or swine, for every horse-load of 
wool, every cart-load of iron, and for every hundred boards 
that might be brought into town in the expectation of meet- 
ing with a purchaser. A half-penny was to be levied on every 
horse or mare, ox or cow, horse-load of sea -fish, or hundred 
of mackerel. A horse-load of cloth, a hundred yards of can- 
vas, a bundle of wooden shoes, and a cart-load of charcoal, 
were each set down for the same small sum. But a quarter 
of corn, a thousand herrings, and a horse-load of apples, pears, 
or nuts, were each to be admitted on payment of a farthing. 
There were many other articles enumerated in the document, 
but the foregoing may well suffice as a sample. 

Another charter, dated from Kenilworth in 1329, confirms 
to the bishop of Lincoln the privilege of holding annual 
fairs, in " his manor of Banbury,^^ on the festival of the Ascen- 



42 THE HISTORY 

sioii and in Wlntsun week, each of which was to continue 
for nine days, with all the " liberties and privileges" belong- 
ing to tlie free fairs of this description throughout the kingdom. 
In the following year, in a document purporting to be granted 
'^ from onr court at Daventry," we find his majesty author- 
ising the bishop to enclose the wood at Crouch hill, and to 
empark three hundred acres of the adjoining lands, so that he 
may ''hold them for himself and his successors for ever;" a 
period of which neither king nor bishop can foresee the ter- 
mination, nor the changes and mutations which time will bring 
about — time 

" Before whose breath, like blazing flax, 

Man and his marvels pass away ; 
And changing empires wane and wax. 

Are founded, flourish, and decay." 

About this period also. Sir Robert Arden, of Wickham, 
must have played a leading part in the annals of the district ; 
for in 1330, we find him receiving royal licence to fortify his 
mansion at Wickham, to hold a fair annually at Drayton, and 
to have all the rights of free warrenry and frankpledge in a 
great number of manors, which are all enumerated in the dif- 
ferent grants. 

In 1337, Edward was preparing to go to war with France, 
to the throne of which he had previously laid claim, on the 
ground of his mother having been the only sister of the three 
last sovereigns of that kingdom. Tor this purpose, he wanted 
money, a commodity without which no war can be waged, and 
issued precepts commanding the attendance of representatives 
from certain towns and places of trade, to assist in a council 



OF BANBURY. 43 

to be held afc Westminster. If we are to judge by the terms 
of the precept addressed to the baiHffs of Banbury, the duty 
on which these delegates were summoned was by no means one 
of the most agreeable kind ; for after "commanding and firmly 
enjoining them" to cause three or four honest and discreet 
men of the town to attend his majesty in council, he conde- 
scends to make use of lan2rua^e soundins^ rather like a threat : 
" knowing," says the king, " that if they shall not appear 
at the day and place named, we will punish both them and 
you." 

It appears that the inhabitants considered the most advis- 
able course was to comply with the royal mandate ; for we find 
the writ endorsed with the names of Sobert Basset, Johuxlstrop, 
and Eobert May, as the representatives appointed to confer 
with royalty. It does not appear from the face of the docu- 
ment what the " urgent affairs" were which required the pre- 
sence of the " honest and discreet" individuals in question ; 
nor is there any record extant from which we can learn how 
our Banbury worthies acquitted themselves in council — or 
rather, at how cheap a rate they managed to get themselves and 
fellow-townsmen out of a disagreeable dilemma. 

Edward now assumed the title of king of Trance ; and 
having been joined by the Flemings and some of the sovereign 
princes of Germany, he directed his army against the frontiers 
of that kingdom to the crown of which he had thus laid claim. 
He entered the territory of Philip of Trance at tlie head of an 
army amounting to 50,000 men — but composed almost 
entirely of his foreign levies — and he was met by the French 
king with a force represented as consisting of nearly double 



44 THE HISTOKY 

that number. The hostile troops confronted each other for 
several days on the plains of Yironfosse, when messages of 
mutual defiance were exchanged ; but as neither party felt suffi- 
ciently confident of victory to induce their leaders to hazard 
the attack, the English monarch withdrew into Flanders and 
there disbanded his useless army. 

This fruitless expedition cost his majesty an immense sum 
of money, as he had already forestalled his revenue, pawned 
his jewels, and was nearly £300,000 in debt to foreigners. The 
English parliament was his only resource ; and on his return 
to this country in 1339, the " collective wisdom of the nation''^ 
was accordingly summoned. After exacting several important 
concessions from the king in favour of the growing liberty of 
the subject, they granted him an export duty of forty shillings on 
every bale of wool, on every three hundred fleeces, and also on 
every last of leather — expressly stipulating, however, that these 
imposts were only to continue for two years, and were not to 
bo construed into a precedent. 

But they did not even stop here ; for they gave him an 
unusual grant — which was to be in force for the same two 
years — of the ninth sheep, lamb, and fleece on their estates ; 
and from the burgesses, a ninth of all their moveables, to be 
compounded for at their just valuation. A ninth was also to 
be deducted from the revenues of the clergy — a class of persons 
who were generally as averse to parting with their cash as any 
of their brother sinners of the laity. The reception awarded 
in Banbury to the assessors of these " ninths," does not seem 
to have been of the most cordial character, for they report that 
the inhabitants, " in contempt of our lord the king,^' have alike 



OF BANBURY. 45 

refusel to daclare tlis yearly amount of tlie church livmg and 
the value of the chattels in the town. 

The first instalment of these subsidies enabled the king, 
with other aid^ to fit out a fleet consisting of 2-10 vessels, 
With this, on the 13th of June, 1310, he attacked the French 
navy off Sluise, and although the latter consisted of 400 vessels 
manned by 40,000 men, he succeeded in capturing 23 of 
these ships, whilst 30,000 Frenchmen were slain in the action. 
But when the English monarch again led his army into France, 
he found, as before, that Philip was ready for him ; so that 
after another fruitless campaign of three months, a truce was 
agreed to between the hostile kings, and Edward returned to 
England in a very bad humonr. 

The sheriffs, revenue officers, and collectors of taxes were 
the first to feel the effects of the royal displeasure, and several 
of the highest dignitaries in the kingdom were imprisoned on 
the charge of having embezzled to their own use the revenues 
of the crown. The accusation brought against others was 
that they had seditiously incited the people to revolt, and to 
resist the payment of lawful taxes. Among these was William 
Wybert of BanbnrVj who appears to have been a sort of 
compound betvN^en bold Robin Hood and Feargus OTon- 
nor ; for as he was being conveyed from Banbury to Oxford, 
in order to suffer the pains and penalties incidental to having 
stirred np the people to " routs, riots, seditions, and tumults,^' 
he made a bolt from his guards in the neighbourhood of Ded- 
dington, and hied him across the country like a hunted deer. 

It must have been a most exciting chase ; but in the end 
Wybert contrived to give his pursuers the slip, and buried 



46 THE HISTOEY 

himself in the shades of Wjchwood forest. Here he gathered 
around him a small but determined band, by whose aid he was 
enabled for the next eleven years to set at defiance all efforts 
to effect his capture. During that period, many a fat buck fell 
to the shafts of the outlaw and his followers — many a collector 
of the royal revenues was peremptorily summoned to " stand 
and deliver" — many a stately dignitary of the church was freed 
from the temptations with which a superabundance of this 
world's wealth is apt to beset the path of the godly. But an 
open opposition to constituted authority, and a flagrant viola- 
tion of the principles of right, are rarely found to prosper in the 
end ; for as Wybert was returning from Arden to Wychwood, 
having been absent on a predatory excursion in the north, he 
fell in with a seneschal of the house of Warwick, at the head 
of a force superior to his own, and as the Banbury outlaw refused 
to give quarter and scorned to receive it, like the Eoman conspi- 
rator of old, he fell fighting in the midst of the foe. In the 
ancient annals, he is sometimes spoken of as " wild and witless 
Will of Wychwood." 

Thomas Beck succeeded Henry Burwash as episcopal chief of 
the diocese of Lincoln in 1342, and in the course of the same 
year, Edward landed another army in France, but with the same 
indifferent success as before, for a hollow truce was again 
patched up and he returned to England in the following year. 
The parliament now began in earnest to buckle on for the 
strife; for in 1344, they advised the king vigorously to 
prosecute the w^ar, to which hitherto they had yielded but a 
reluctant assent. Eor this purpose they granted him unso- 
licited supplies, charging the counties wdth a fifteenth of their 



OP BANBURY. 47 

produce and the borouglis with a tenth of their moveables. 
This subsidy enabled Edward to equip another ariny^ which 
was despatched to Guienne under the command of the earl of 
Derby. That nobleman was as prudent as he proved himself 
brave, and in the course of the two following years, he added 
largely to England's continental possessions ; but in 1346, a 
powerful French army took the field against him, under the 
command of the dulses of Normandy and Burgundy. 

Resolved on succouring his beleaguered subjects, Edward 
summons a general array, to which Oxford was required to 
furnish thirty fully-accoutred warriors, Banbury six, Witney 
four, Chipping Norton three, and Thame three — a computation 
which will furnish us with some idea ofthe relative importance 
of the towns in question towards the middle of the fourteenth 
century. When this army was mustered, it was found to 
consist of ten thousand archers, four thousand men-at-arms, 
ten thousand Welsh infantry, and six thousand Irish. They 
embarked at Southampton on board a fleet of about a thou- 
sand sail, and landed at the Hague after a tedious voyage. 
The disembarkation took place on the 12th of July, when the 
king took command of the army in person, and one of his first 
acts was to confer the honour of knighthood upon the prince 
of Wales — then a youth of fifteen. A ceremony of this nature 
always furnished a pretext for a pull upon the pockets of those 
who held their lands by grant from the crown; and we 
accordingly find that John Butler was taxed for half a knighf s 
fee in Grimsbury, and Sir John Lyons for the fourth part of a 
knight's fee in Warkworth. 

The battle of Cressy was fought and won on the 26th of 



48 THE HISTORY 

August, 1346, in wliich Prance lost between tliirty and forty 
thousand of tlie bravest of lier sons ; whilst two of her 
tributar}^ kings, a like number of her dakes, and four of her 
earls were numbered with the slain on the field of battle. 
This was followed by the surrender of Calais to the English 
king in 134^7, in which year John Gunwell succeeded to the 
mitre of Lincoln. 

In 1349-50, the country was swept by a devastating 
pestilence, which, originating in Asia, had spread its sable 
wings over the nations of Europe, and introduced the voice of 
mourning into many a happy home. It appears to have 
resembled the cholera in its leading features, but was doubtless 
much more deadly in its results, both from the habits of the 
people and the absence of those sanatory precautions of which 
they were ignorant, and which have happily succeeded in 
depriving this destroyer of two-thirds of his prey. In 
Banbury alone, upwards of two hundred persons fell victims 
to the scourge — an awful mortality when the number of the 
population is taken into account. 

It is foreign to our purpose to follow the campaigns of 
Edward^s gallant son — how on the field of Poictiers, in 1356, 
with an army of twelve thousand men, he routed the enemy 
though sixty thousand strong, and took their king a prisoner 
on the field. It boots not to tell how in 1359-60, Edward 
himself ravaged the fairest districts of Erance without meeting 
with a check or encountering a foe. We need not pause to 
relate how the imprisoned king agreed to pay England three 
milKons of crowns in gold for his ransom, and cede many a 
lovely province in perpetuity to his conqueror. 



OF BANBTJRT. 49 

To come nearer home, we are told that at this time there 
were sixty thousand students in the university of Oxford ; but 
although Speed, the eminent historian, vouches for the accuracy 
of this statement, it will doubtless be surmised that he must 
either have set down a cipher too many, or that the collegians 
must have been packed into exceedingly close compass. The year 
1363 saw John of Buckingham raised to the see of Lincoln ; 
and in 1369, the "bold baron Mowbray" held the manor of 
Chacombe. In 1377, Edward III. passed the boundaries of 
time, after having swayed the sceptre for above half a century, 
and was succeeded by his grandson the second Eichard. 

This prince was but eleven years of age when he ascended 
the throne, and was consequently unfitted by his youth for 
regulating the affairs of state, which were committed to the 
conduct of a " Council of Nine," presided over by the three 
uncles of the king. The charters empowering the bishop of 
Lincoln to hold the Whitsun-fair in Banbury, granting him 
the right of free warrenry in his manors around the town, 
and liberty to enclose the lands about Crouch Hill, were all 
confirmed under the great seal in 1378, Three years after- 
wards, in consequence of the imposition of the tax of three 
groats a head on every person above fifteen years of age, a 
general insurrection of the working classes took pbce under 
Wat Tyler, the Essex blacksmith, and sundry other popular 
leaders. The demands of the insurgents were marked by 
extreme moderation, requiring the abolition of vassalage and 
villainage, and the freedom of commerce in market towns. The 
insurrection was suppressed and the ringleaders executed—- 
the young king exhibiting a promptitude and coolness that 



50 THE HISTORY 

raised higli expectations from liis future career — expectations 
whicli were far from being justified bj tlie result. Nearly the 
Avhole of his reign was he embroiled with the nobility, and 
impeachments and murder were of frequent occurrence. 

In 1898, whilst the parliament was sitting at Shrewsbury, 
Henry Beaufort of King's Sutton succeeded to the bishopric 
of Lincoln and the concomi{ant lordship of the castle and 
manors of Banbury. On the 4th of July in the following 
year, the king's cousin, the banished duke of Lancaster, landed 
at Eavenspur in Yorkshire ; and the monarch, having been 
deserted by his adherents, fled to Anglesea. He was sub- 
sequently taken prisoner, and in the course of the same year 
was either murdered or starved to death in the stronghold at 
Pontefract — a fate diiiering widely fj'om his former fortune, 
when his household ccnsisted of ten thousand persons, three 
hundred of whom were employed in the royal kitchen. 



CHAPTER V. 
from S^tnrg W. to J^enrg U3IE 

Usurpation and Insurrection. — The Chantry of St. Mary.— -Invasion of 
France. — Henry V. ai:d VI. — Bicester Priory. — The Chantry Incorporated. — 
The Baron of Hook Norton.— Lord Saye and Jack Cade.— The Wars of the 
Kcses. — Edward IV. — The Battle of Edgcote. — Execution of Pembroke. 

£NEY lY., the first sovereign of the House of 
Lancaster, now assumed the regal power and title, 
although not the lineal heir to the throne. An insurrection, 
headed by Percy son of the earl of Northumberland, was sup- 
pressed at the battle of Shrewsbury, fought on the 21st of 



OF BANBURY. 61 

July, 1403, which was decided in the king's favour. The 
only other noteworthy events that occurred in this reign — at 
least so far as the district under notice is concerned — was 
the translation of Henry of Lincoln to the see of Winchester, 
in 1405, and the appointment of Philip Eeapington as his 
successor. Turkeys brought a good price during this king's 
reign, for we find from the records of the priory of Bicester, 
that when the brotherhood were wanting some little better 
fare than ordinary, they used to send for it to Banbury market, 
and the price of two of these fowls is set down as having cost 
them 15s. lid. In the thirteenth year of his reign, the fourth 
Henry slept with his fathers, and his son Henry Y. ascended 
the throne. 

The chantry of St. Mary in Banbury was founded in the 
first year of this reign, by a donation of " twelve messuages 
and a moiety of a virgate of land," in Banbury, Wickham, and 
Keithrop, from Eichard of Eton, William Harris, John Warr, 
John of Towcester, and Jolm Danvers of Calthorpe House — 
the proceeds of the property to be devoted to the maintenance 
of two chaplains, to pray for the welfare of the king, the 
prebend of Banbury, the founders whilst living, and the 
repose of their souls v>dien dead. 

We need not pause to note the progress now being made 
by the Lollards and followers ofWicklilfe — the forerunners of 
that reformation which in future ages w^as destined to effect 
so great a change in the manners and habits, as well as in the 
rehgious tenets of the people. Nor need we allude to the 
causes which led to a renewal of war with France, to another 
invasion of that kingdom, and to the victory of Agincourt in 



52 THE HISTORY 

1415. In 1420, we find another change in the lordship of 
Banbury bj the elevation of Eichard the Fleming to the see of 
Lincoln. When the king's power was at its height, and after 
he had been publicly acknowledged successor to the throne of 
France, Henry Y. was struck down by a painful malady, and 
yielded up the ghost in 1422. 

The infant Henry YI. was now proclained king of England, 
France, and Ireland — a large weight of honour for so young 
a brow. But the Maid of Orleans took up arms for her 
country. An enthusiast herself, she infused new spirits into 
the drooping courage of those who had hitherto but feebly 
supported the cause of French independence, and numerous 
were the reverses sustained by the English through the means 
of her hardihood and daring. The English army was but 
indifferently supplied with the necessaries requisite to carry on 
a campaign ; for instead of providing these, the royal treasury 
was exhausted in the repayment of loans — of which the men 
of Banbury came in for the reimbursement of " a hundred 
shillings.'^ By the records of the Priory of Bicester, we learn 
that the rents received for the brotherhood from Grimsbury 
amounted to £13 6s. 8d. a year ; whilst those drawn from 
Deddington, Hempton, and Clifton, annually exceeded the 
sum of £37. In 1431, William Grey was promoted to the 
bishopric of Lincoln, and was succeeded in 1436 by the then 
bishop of Norwich. 

In 1448, the king granted a licence to the founders of the 
chantry of Saint Mary and others, to form themselves into a 
perpetual guild or brotherhood, to be governed by a warden 
or master, who should be elected annually from amongst 



OP BANBURY. 53 

themselves ; and thej were also authorised to receive into 
their number those who from motives of devotion might be 
induced to join them. Permission was given them to have a 
common seal, to institute or defend suits at law in their 
corporate capacity, and notwithstanding the statute of mort- 
main, to acquire lands, tenements, or other property. Eoyal 
licences of this description were obtained in those days at a 
cheaper rate than our modern acts of parliament, seeing that 
the ordinance in question cost but a fee of " twenty marks 
paid into the hanaper." 

The earl of Suffolk and baron of Hook Norton at this time 
rose to be a "man of mark.^' His "blood," it is true, was 
not of the purest water of nobihty, seeing that one of his 
immediate progenitors had been engaged in trade ; yet in con- 
sequence of the part which he had taken in bringing about a 
marriage between the king and Margaret of Anjou, he was 
created first a marquis, then a duke, and finally was appointed 
first minister of the crown. Without doubt, he was accessory 
to the murder of the duke of Glo'ster in 1447, and the cession 
of the territory of Maine to the queen^s uncle added greatly 
to his unpopularity. He was impeached by the Commons in 
1450, and in his defence referred triumphantly to his thirty- 
four campaigns, in which he had proved his devotion to the 
interests of his country, by bravely doing his best for the 
maintenance of her honour — to the fact of his father and three 
of his brothers having fallen in battle during the wars with 
Prance — to his seventeen ye ars' absence in England^s service, 
during the whole of which period he had kept her banners 
unfurled in a land of foemen — to his wounds^ to his imprison- 



64 THE HISTORY 

men!;, and to tlie ransom he had paid. Bat it was all in vain ! 
The king himself sealed his sentence of banishment for five 
years. He was intercepted by his enemies on his passage to 
France, seized near Dover, his head struck off on the gunwale 
of a boat, and his body thrown into the sea. 

Lord Saye, the royal chamberlain and lord treasurer of the 
kingdom, was impeached at the same time and committed to 
the Tower. On the fall of Suffolk, an insurrection took place 
among the populace of Kent, headed by Jack Cade, who gave 
himself the high-sounding name of Sir John Mortimer. He 
was certainly a radical reformer, although he went rather in a 
rough way to work. He pointed out the abuses in govern- 
ment and demanded their summary redress. A small force 
was sent against him under Sir Humphrey Stafford, which he 
encountered at Sevenoaks, and defeated after a short but 
sharp skirmish, during which the royalist commander was 
slain. Elated with victory. Cade advanced upon London 
and encamped at Blackheath. His force now amounted to 
thirty thousand men, and the king and council removed to 
Kenil worth. The citizens of London opened their gates to 
the insurgents, and for some time the strictest order was pre- 
served. But to gratify his followers. Cade caused lord Saye 
to be brought from the Tower, and along with Cromer, sheriff 
of Kent, he was subjected to a form of trial at the Guild- 
hall. Charges the most absurd were brought against the 
prisoners, but they were condemned notwithstanding — and as 
in popular tumults, execution follows close upon the heels of 
judgment, they were hurried to Cheapside, where they suffered 
under the headsman's axe. Barbarities the most shocking 



OF BANSUEY. 56 

were practised on the senseless bodies of tlie dead, to which 
no farther allusion need be made than to say that they were 
in keeping with the character of an uncivilised age. In open 
contempt of the orders of their leader, the insurgents next 
broke into and plundered a rich man's house, on which the 
inhabitants shut the gates against them, and aided by a detach- 
ment of troops from the Tower, succeeded in repulsing them 
with considerable loss. On a promise of pardon — which, by 
the bye, was never kept — the insurgents retired upon Eochester 
and there disbanded. 

In 1452, Richard duke of York, the rightful heir to the 
throne, at the head of an army of ten thousand men, demanded 
the dismissal of the duke of Somerset from the government, 
and a reformation in the affairs of the kingdom. In the course 
of the same year, John Chedworth was elevated to the see of 
Lincoln, and became for the time lord paramount of Banbury. 
John Norman, a native of Banbury, was lord mayor of London 
in 1453, and as the intellect of the easj^-going king at that 
time gave way, Norman's influence was not unfelt in the 
destinies of the nation. As the illness of the king continued 
to increase, the duke of York was appointed Lieutenant of the 
kingdom in 1454, and invested for a time with supreme power. 

Although not more intimately connected with Banbury than 
with the rest of the kingdom, we shall glance at the leading 
incidents of the Wars of the Eoses, for the purpose of giving 
the reader a connected narrative. The first battle of St. Albans, 
fought on the 23nd of May, 1455, was decided in favour of 
the house of York, five thousand of the Lancastrians having 
been slain and the king himself being taken prisoner. The 



56 THE HISTORT 

duke of York was then appoiuted Protector of the kingdom ; 
but in the following year, the queen produced her husband 
before the House of Lords, in one of his lucid intervals, and 
he was forthwith reinstated in regal power. In 1459, the 
Lancastrians under lord Audley were defeated by the earl of 
Salisbury at Bloreheath in Staffordshire ; and in the following 
year, they had no better fortune, when they again encountered 
the Yorkists at Northampton, under the command of lords 
Audley, March, and Warwick. In this action, the imbecile 
king was again taken prisoner. In October, 1460, a compro- 
mise was agreed to in parliament, by which it was arranged 
that the title of king should be continued to Henry during 
his life ; but that supreme power should in the meantime be 
lodged in the hands of the duke of York, who was also 
appointed to succeed to the throne. 

This gave mortal umbrage to the clever queen, who by her 
artful address, and lavish promises to the barons of the north, 
was soon at the head of an army of twenty thousand men. 
She met the duke of York at Wakefield on the 24th of 
December, defeated the five thousand men whom he had under 
his command, and his head graced with a paper coronet — for 
he was slain in the action — was placed on the wall of the city 
from which his title is derived. His son Edward, now head 
of the house of York, asserted his claim and title to the crown 
— a claim that was not only well founded, but backed by the 
whole power of his party. He defeated lord Pembroke at 
Mortimer's Cross in 1461 — a victory for which the queen 
gained a compensation by vanquishing the earl of Warwick at 
the second battle of St. Albans, when she recovered possessioi: 



OP BANBURY. 57 

of the imprisoned king. Hers was, however, but a short-Hved 
success ; for Edward came up by rapid marches with his small 
but victorious army, and speedily rallied the broken followers 
of Warwick. The queen retired northward with her army, 
and Edward entered London where he was proclaimed king. 

At the battle of Touton in Yorkshire, fought on the 29th 
of March of the same year, the young king gained a 
decisive victory over the duke of Somerset, and thirty-six 
thousand Lancastrians are computed to have been slain in the 
action or perished in the pursuit. 

The Queen fled into Scotland, raised an army of adven- 
turous spirits there, received reinforcements from Erance, and 
having been joined by large numbers of partizans of the house 
of Lancaster, ventured to tempt once more her fortunes in the 
field. But the fickle goddess seems to have deserted her, for 
at Hexham in Northumberland, on the 15th of May, 1464, 
the last hope of regaining the throne appeared to vanish, as 
her followers were again scattered in flight. 

King Edward IV. was not endowed with even ordinary 
caution ; for whilst the earl of Warwick was absent in Erance, 
negociating a marriage between his sovereign and the French 
king's sister, the whole affair was rendered abortive by Edward 
secretly marrying a daughter of Sir Eichard Woodville and 
widow of John Gray, who fell in fight at the second battle of 
St. Albans, doing his devoir under the banner of the house of 
Lancaster. Honours in abundance were showered upon the 
relatives of the new queen, and every token which they received 
of the monarch's esteem was regarded by the earl of Warwick 
as a fresh insult to himself. 



5S THE HISTORY 

III 1469, a rebellion broke out in Yorkshire, which had its 
origin in a grant to the hospital of St. Leonard in that county, 
and the iasargents were eventually headed by Sir Henry 
Neville, a relative of the earl of Warwick, and Sir John Con- 
yers, a baronet of considerable military experience. It does 
not appear that the insurrection originated in any express 
intrigue entered into by Warwick for the purpose of overturn- 
ing the reigning dynasty ; but in all likelihood the leaders 
were aware of the private opinions of that powerful nobJemau 
and were fully cognisant of the fact that such a consummation 
would by no means rouse the baron's wrath. When Ihe rebels 
first appeared at the gates of Yoi-k, they barely mustered fifteen 
thousand men; buu the ranks of disaffection were speedily 
increased, and full forty thousand marched southward under 
their banners. 

The earl of Pembroke, at the head of a force variously com- 
puted to consist of from ten to eighteen thousand Welshmen, 
was ordered by the king to oppose their advance, and was 
joined by the earl of Devonshire with a body of five thousand 
west-country archers. On the 23rd of Juty, this gallant array 
entered the town of Banbury, and on the 24th and 25th, there 
were some slight skirmishes between the advanced posts of the 
hostile armies. On the last-named day, the Welshmen were 
drawn up on Edgcoie hill, the insurgents fronting them on 
that of Chipping Warden. The sun had passed the meri- 
dian, but still the western bowmen appeared not on the field. 
The orb of day was sinking westward, but the sound of their 
trumpet had not yet broke upon the bstening ear. Leaving 
the army under the command of the undaunted Sir Eichard 



OF BANBUEY. 59 

Herbert, his brave brother, the earl of Pembroke galloped to 
the town, to see what had become of his absent ally. He found 
the archers scattered about, each enjoying himself as suited 
his fancy, and the commander, who ought to have set his men 
an example of subordination and readiness, was engaged in 
dallying with the barmaid of an inn. Pembroke took him by 
the shoulders and turned him out of the house. But as the 
result showed, it was a sorry job for both; for the mortified 
nobleman, on being thus summarily ejected from the presence 
of his lady-love, ordered his battahons to fall in, and marched 
off to Chipping Norton the same afternoon, leaving his brother 
general to compete with the Yorkshiremen as best he might. 

On rejoining his army in the field, Pembroke found them 
engaged with the insurgent vanguard under the command of 
Sir Henry Neville. That rash youth liad advanced too far 
in front of his supports— an oversight which led to his being 
hemmed in and eventually made prisoner. As a rebel taken 
in arms, he was led behind the lines, and without the smallest 
ceremony or form of trial, he breathed his last prayer and was 
left a headless trunk. This closed the action for that day, and 
both armies rested on their arms, awaiting with anxiety the 
coming morrow. 

In the course of the night, several deserters from the royal 
army carried intelhgence to the insurgents of the defalcation of 
the archers, and with the first peep of dawn the Yorkshire 
bowmen commenced the attack. The fatal shafts fell thicker 
and thicker, and as the royalists had no means of returning 
such favours, they were forced to leave their ground of vantage 
on the hill in order to come to close quarters on the plain. 



60 THE HISTOET 

The battle became general throughout the whole line. The 
sun rose high in the heavens, shedding his rays of light and 
love upon a scene of human havoc and ungovernable rage. 
Men for a time were transformed into demons — demons thirst- 
ing for the blood of their kind. Many a manly bosom waa 
gored that day by a foeman's steel, and many a hoary head laid 
low in the midst of the carnage then raging around. " St. 
David to the rescue ! Cymbri advance ! " Onward pressed 
the sons of the mountain on foot — onward swept the horse- 
men and men-at-arms. Pembroke, conspicuous by his snowy 
plume which floated high above the struggling throng, was 
present wherever the strife was most deadly. His brave 
brother, battle-axe in hand, twice hewed his way through the 
welded battalions of the sons of the north, and twice he 
regained his own ranks in safety. 

" St George for merry England ! a Warwick ! a Warwick '/' 
The cry is echoed from the height of Culworth, and a body of 
about six hundred men, who had been hurriedly levied in 
Northampton and the neighbourhood, by John Clapham, Esq. 
one of the of&cers of lord Warwick's household, may be seen 
pressing forward to the scene of strife. This reinforcement 
completely changes the aspect of the field. Until now, the 
royalists have decidedly the advantage, and the king's name has 
been a "tower of strength.'' But the appearance of these 
fresh forces on the scene — headed with the well-known escut- 
cheon of the bear and ragged staff — infuses new courage into 
the ranks of the insurgents and spurs them on to fresh exer- 
tions. Panic and dismay are everywhere prevalent amid the 
adverse host, and the routed royalists break and fly. Vain is 



OF BANBURY. 61 

every effort of ths leaders to rally them 1 lu vain does 
Pembroke spar his dying charger amid his broken squadrons 
and call upon his men to bear in mind their former fame and 
strike another bold blow for their king ! In vain does Sir 
Richard Herbert brandish his dripping axe over the heads of 
the runaways, and threaten them with instant death unless 
they turn and renew the conflict ! 

" St. George for merry England ! a Warwick and a Neville !'' 
The earl of Pembroke is a prisoner, and in attempting to 
rescue him, his gallant brother becomes a captive also. 
All order is completely lost, and individual effort is now 
only directed to the attainment of individual safety. They 
throw away every thing that can retard their flight, and leaving 
five thousand of their comrades slain upon the field or killed 
in the pursuit, those who only two days before had strode 
forth so proudly to the scene of a prematurely-anticipated 
triumph, now rush through the streets of Banbury a routed, 
disorganized, and flying rabble, pursued by a triumphant and 
unsparing foe. 

On the second day after the battle, the town was the scene 
of a bloody drama. Ten of the captives who were highest in 
•ank are brought in chains to the church porch, and are there 
"nformed of the doom that awaited them. The earl of 
Pembroke freely offered his own head to the executioner, only 
beseeching his captors to spare his brother. But mercy to 
the vanquished was a virtue rarely practised in these iron- 
hearted times, and the prisoners were informed that the 
same clemency, and no more, which they had shown to Sir 
Henry Neville should now be extended to themselves. There 



6^ THE HISTOHY 

stands the fatal block surrounded by a strong guard of 
insurgents — the headsman and his axe are there, ready, too 
ready for their horrid work — the prisoners are told to prepare 
for their doom — the blood-encrusted weapon is raised on high 
~— it falls on the neck with a sickening sound — again, again, 
again it descends, and ten ghastly human heads may be seen 
lying in the church ])orch. 

This contest appears to have re-opened the flood-gates of 
slaughter, the sluices of which had been so recently let down. 
The king very pmperly imputed the loss of the battle of Ban- 
bury to the desertion of the earl of Devonshire ; so he ordered 
the nobleman in question to be taken info custody and served 
in the same summary manner as that by which his quondam 
colleague had fallen — a command which was promptly obeyed, 
for at Bridgewater lord Devonshire was brought to the scaffold. 
On the other hand, the victorious insurgents proceeded to 
Grafton, where they took lord Eivers and Sir John Woodville 
prisoners. The queen's father and brother, having thus fallen 
into merciless hands, were taken to Northampton and there 
beheaded. 

"We have now arrived at the most confused era of England's 
history. Comines and the coutiuuator of the annals of Croyland 
assert that about this period the king was taken prisoner and 
■carried first to "Warwick and subsequently to York, of which 
lord Warwick's brother was archbishop. They state that he 
made his escape from the hunting field, or by bribing his keepers, 
and chased the rebels out of the kingdom. But we agree 
with Hume in thinking the whole story a fabrication, as in the 
royal manifesto against the duke of Clarence and earl of 



0¥ BANBURY. 63 

Warwick (Claus. 10 Edward lY. m. 7. 8.) in wliich all their 
crimes and treasons are enamerated, no mention is made of 
any sucii fact ; and the probabilities are that if sucli a charge 
could have been truly brought, an offence so heinous would 
uot have been omitted. The fact seems to be, that the king 
at this time placed an implicit but ill-deserved confidence both 
in his brother Clarence and his subject Warwick, by whose 
advice he issued a pardon to the rebels, who consequently 
dispersed and proceeded to their homes. 

In 1470, Warwick and Clarence were expelled the kingdom; 
but they returned the same year, and after a campaign of 
eleven days, during which no battle was fought, king Edward 
was an exile in a loud of strangers, and Heury YL was 
reconducted from the Tower to the throne. On the 25th of 
March, 1471, king Edward returns and lands at Kavenspur 
with only two thousand men, gave Warwick the shp as he was 
assembling an army, and re-entered London on the 11th of 
April. Three doys afterwards, he encountered the earl of 
Warwick at Barnet, who — although he was deserted during 
the night by the duke of Clarence aijd ten thousand of his 
bravest men — maintained an unequal contest during an 
arduous day, and was slain fighting on foot in the midst of his 
troops. In this battle also, William lord Saye and Sele was 
slain, fighting for a cause in which he had already suffered 
greatly, not only in purse and property but also in person, and 
the title remained for some time in abeyance. This nobleman 
was the son of the lord Saye and Sele who met with so 
unceremonious a death in Cheapside, and was the first of his 
family connected with this district, as by his marriage with the 



64 THE HISTOUY 

heiress of William of Wickliam, the manor of Bronghton had 
passed into his hands. 

In the course of the same year, Thomas Scott, bishop of 
Eochester, was promoted to the see of Lincoln and the con- 
comitant lordship of Banbury; and in 1480, John B/Ussell, 
lord chancellor of the kingdom, succeeded to the vacant 
episcopal throne. 

In 14)8^, whilst engaged in preparations for a war with 
France, the king was seized with a malady which hurried him 
to the tomb, leaving his son only thirteen years of age, who 
was proclaimed under the title of Edward V. to the tender 
mercies of Richard duke of Gloucester^ in whom was vested 
the powers of regent. It is unnecessary here to dwell on the 
murder of the two princes in the tower, an event that occurred 
in 1483, or to the subsequent enormities of a tyrant whose 
memory is now held in general detestation. Nor need we 
pause to detail how, on the 22nd of August, 1485, he fought 
and fell upon the field of Bosworth, leaving his competitor the 
earl of Richmond the successful claimant to the diadem of 
England. 




OF BAIIBUEY. 65 



CHAPTER VI. 
JFrom J^enrg UH. U (^ntzn j^arg. 

The Accession of the Victor.— Perkia Warbeck.— The King holds his court 
at Banbury. — Henry VIIL— Banbury Grammar School. — The Reformation. — 
The Parliament braves the Pope. — A Commission and Visitation. — Suppression 
of the lesser Monasteries. — Wroxton Priory. — Court of Augmentation. — 
Another Visitation. — Sale of Grimsbury. — Death of Henry and Accession of 
Edward VI.— Dissolution of St. Mary's Guild and Chantry.— The manor of 
Banbury transferred to the Crown. — Abolition of the Prebend's stall. 

OD save king Henry! This was the pleasing note 
which saluted the victor on the field of strife ; and by 
his^ubsequent marriage with the princess Elizabeth, he united 
the conflicting claims of York and Lancaster — elements of 
confusion which had occasioned the shedding of so much 
blood. In 1488, we find a Banbury man raised high in the 
courts of law, as Sir William Danvers of Calthorpe was then 
promoted to the dignity of Lord Chief Justice of the court of 
Common Pleas. He is represented as having been a shrewd 
politician and thoroughly versed in the intricacies of law, but 
like many other judges of the olden time, not always imper- 
vious to the temptation of a bribe. 

In 1493, the pretensions set forth by Perkin Warbeck, and 
the acknowledgment of his claim by the duchess of Burgundy, 
induced many to espouse his cause. Among these was Sir 
Simon Montfort, lord of the manors of Tenny Compton and 
Wormleighton, who seconded the interests of Warbeck with 



00 THE HISTOKY 

alacrity and zeal. But the conspiracy was soon cruslied, and 
with many others — both noblemen and gentlemen — Montfort 
was taken prisoner, tried, and condemned. Thus he paid for 
his treason with the loss of his head, and his confiscated manors 
were conferred by the king on William Cope of Hanwell and 
Hard wick, who was at that time high treasurer of his majesty's 
household. 

In 1495, Chancellor Smith of Oxford was created bishop of 
Lincoln, and Banbury became his favourite residence. In the 
month of February, 1500, the king held his court in Banbury 
castle, and it is more than probable that here he bad several 
interviews with the nuncio of pope Alexander YI. who visited 
England in the spring of that year for the purpose of inducing 
Henry to take the command of an army for the recovery of 
the Holy Land. His Majesty, however, declined the honour, 
unless on such conditions as he knew the pontiff would be 
unable to grant. There must have been gay doings then in 
the good old town ; for although Henry himself was sullen 
and morose, yet his courtiers were by no means of the same 
unamiable temper, so that huntiDg, and hawking, and aU the 
other amusements of the period, varied the routine of each 
day's enjoyment. 

On the death of Arthur prince of Wales, which took place 
only a few months after his marriage with Catharine of 
Arragon, Henry, unwilling to give u]) the large dowry which 
he had received with the princess, obtained a dispensation 
from Rome, and had the espousals of her marriage contracted 
with prince Henry, then only twelve years of age. On the 
22nd of April, 1509, death knocked at his majesty's door^ and 



OP BANBURY. 67 

Henry YIIT. ascended the throne at the early age of eighteen 
years. At the commencement of his reign^ he was one of the 
most popular monarchs that ever swayed the sceptre over 
devoted subjects; but ere its close, he had enemies sufficient 
to find his active mind in full employment. 

At this period, the Banbury grammar school rose to its 
culminating point of greatness, under the mastership of Mr. 
Thomas Stanbridge ; and we are informed upon pretty reliable 
authority that its books and modes of teaching were adopted as 
models by seminaries which now rank among the highest in 
the kingdom. The " Stanbridge Grammar" occupies a cele- 
brated place among the scholastic works of the period, and in 
the foundation statutes of the grammar school of Manchester, 
it is ordained that the master shall be able to teach the childrtn 
grammar after the manner practised in the school at Banbury. 
It is thought, and that too by writers of no mean note, that 
the statutes of the celebrated City of London school, in Milk 
Street, Cheapside, were copied from those of the Banbury 
institution. 

At the death of Bishop Smith in 1514, he bequeathed £100 
to the hospitium of St. John, besides £60 which he had given 
in his lifetime, and though these appear small sums in this 
moneyed age, yet in those days they figured as of no incon- 
siderable amount. He was succeeded in the episcopate by the 
prime minister Wolsey ; but the bishopric of Lincoln was too 
lowly to satisfy this prelate's ambition, and he was accordingly 
translated to the arch-diocese of York. He was succeeded in 
the former by William Atwater, and at his death, the chancellor 
of Oxford was appointed to the supervision of the vacant see. 



68 THE HISTORY 

"We shall not follow Henry in liis continental policy or 
continental wars^ but will come at once to that era by which his 
reign will ever be distinguished — the Reformation. In detail- 
ing the course of events, it forms no part of the narrator's 
duty to institute comparisons between competing forms of 
conflicting faith, or to play the part of an adherent or a partisan, 
and claim the palm of superiority for a favoured creed. Let 
the theologian defend his own peculiar opinions, and maintain 
intact those doctrines which he may consider essential to the 
welfare of mankind ; but it is the privilege — nay the para- 
mount duty of the historian, to weigh well the contradictory 
statements of those writers who have gone before him, whose 
opinions he may consider worthy of credence, and then truth- 
fully to place on record the actions of men, who in their day 
and generation exercised a large amount of influence for weal 
or woe. In the compilation of a local history like this, the 
writer may well dispense with criticising these men's motives 
or analysing their character, and may rest satisfied with detailing 
the effects of their actions, as experienced in the particular 
locality of which he is endeavouring to place the annals upon 
record. 

Therefore, without going into the enumeration of the causes 
which led to the secession of Henry YIII. from continuing 
his fealty to the hierarchy of Eome, of which in the early part 
of his reign he had been so devoted an adherent as to obtain 
the proud title " Defender of the Eaith," suffice it to say, that 
under the influence of powerful passions, and hurried onwards 
by events which he was unable to control, the monarch was 
induced at length to hurl back the anathema which the Roman 



OF BANBURY. 69 

pontiff had dared to launch against his head, and to bid 
defiance to a power which had for ages kept the world in awe. 

In the year 1534, the parliament ventured on the enactment 
of laws wholly subversive of the authority of the pope. It 
had already proscribed all appeals to Eome and denied that 
the apostolic chamber had any right to interfere in the affairs 
of England. It now declared, by other statutes, that no 
convocation of the clergy should take place without the king's 
express permission ; that the canons of the church should be 
thoroughly revised ; that in future the pope should have no 
share in the election of an English bishop; that "Peter's 
Pence" should be abolished; that all procurations, delegations, 
bulls, and dispensations from Eome should be abrogated; 
that all rehgious houses should be subject to the visitation of 
the Archbishop of Canterbury; and that the church should 
give an account of all its manors, tythes, and revenues, to 
certain commissioners appointed by the crown. 

The report of that commission, under the head of " Dio- 
cese of Lincoln and Deanery of Deddington," gives us the 
following particulars with reference to Banbury: — The re- 
venue of the Hospital of St. John, after paying the quit-rent 
for houses held of the bishop, was returned at £15 a year ; 
the prebendary of Banbury, held at the time by Dr. Matthew 
Smythe, was after similar deductions set down at £46 6s. 8d ; 
the annual value of the vicarage, in the incumbency of Dr. 
Dingley, was reported at £22 ; the revenues of the guild and 
chantry of St. Mary were returned at £58 a year ; the rents 
and perquisites of the bishop of Lincoln, arising from the 
town and parish of Banbury, subject to the deduction for the 



70 THE HISTORY 

payment of his bailiff, were set down as amounting to £16 ; 
whilst the returns of the castle-reeve show a yearly revenue 
of upwards of £69, subject to deductions amounting to £26 8s. 
By another document we learn that the Priory of Wroxton 
received from Banbury, in yearly rental for five houses and 
a piece of land, the sum of £2 3s. 4d. subject to a deduction 
of six shillings a year for chief and quit-rents. 

Throughout the whole countr}^, the elements of confusion 
were now actively at work. The monks, a numerous body of 
organised men, knew that the duration of their power in 
England was dependant upon the re-establishment of the papal 
authority, and conscious that they must stand or fall together, 
exerted both their influence and eloquence to stay the progress 
of the doctrines of the reformation. As openly as they 
dared, they even went the length of charging Henry himself 
with the most atrocious crimes. On the other hand, the 
followers of Wycliffe and Luther were neither sparing of in- 
vective nor behind-hand in declamation. They imputed to 
the monks those frequent fasts which impoverished industry 
to enrich idleness. They charged them with superstition in 
placing a higher value on the outward observance of the for- 
mulas prescribed by their church than in purity of heart or 
sanctity of life. They accused them of indulging in gross 
sensuality, and of using the garb of their profession for the 
accomplishment of most unholy desires. The result was that 
a commission was appointed for the purpose of instituting en- 
quiries into the morals of the brotherhood ; and on their re- 
port, in 1536, an act was passed for the dissolution of the 
lesser monasteries. The preamble of the act ran thus : " That 



OF BANBURYi 71 

'Whereas small i^eligious houses^ under the number of twelve 
persons, have been long and notoriously guilty of the most 
abominable vices, and consumed and wasted the church lands 
in their possession ;'' it was therefore enacted that all religious 
houses whose revenues did not amount to £200 a year should 
be suppressed, and the inmates " compelled to reform their 
lives/' There can be no doubt that a desire to become pos- 
sessed of the revenues of these institutions had as much to do 
with the framing of this enactment as any wish on the king's 
part to promote morality ; for we find that no fewer than three 
hundred and seventy-six of these monasteries came under the 
operation of the act, and their revenues amounting to £32,000 
a year — an immense sum in those days — were unceremoniously 
handed over to the monarch's coffers. In addition to this, 
their plate and household goods were ordered to be sold, and 
realised an additional £100,000. The Priory of Wroxton was 
included in the lesser monasteries thus summarily dealt with 
—•its revenues only amounting to £133 13s. 4d. a year — and 
if Dugdalemay be believed, it was ordered to be destroyed; 
but at all events, it ceased to be devoted to religious purposes, 
and the building and furniture changed owners. 

A " Court of Augmentation" was established for the valua- 
tion and disposal of the property which thus fell to the Crown, 
and Sir Thomas Pope, a native of Deddington, was appointed 
treasurer of this court. In Warton's life of Pope, we are in- 
formed that this statesman received the elements of his edu- 
cation at Banbury grammar school, and that he subsequently 
studied at Eton ; that at his father's death, his sisters were 
left with £4)0 a-piece, his mother to receive one half of the 



72 THE HISTORY 

rental of the land, and tlie other half to accumulate till Master 
Thomas should be of age. The old gentleman also bequeathed 
to every god-child a sheep; to Clifton Chapel, 6s. 8d.; to 
'' Our Lady," to St. Thomas, to the torches, to the bells, the 
magnificent behest of 3s. 4d. each. 

After his appointment to the treasurership of the court of 
augmentation, like many other courtiers around Henry's throne. 
Sir Thomas appears to have been sufficiently alive to his own 
interest ; for though the property at Wroxton Priory was in 
the first instance leased to Mr. William Rainsford, yet in the 
following year, that gentleman ''sold" his lease to the Treasurer, 
who also obtained from the Crown the reversion of all the other 
property belonging to the Priory, situated in the parishes of 
Wroxton and Balscot. 

The king and his courtiers, having thus had their appetites 
for wealth whetted rather than appeased by the suppression 
and confiscation of the lesser monasteries, now turned their 
attention to the larger institutions of a similar character. 
Another "Visitation" was appointed in 1538, which ended in 
the dissolution of five hundred and forty-five monasteries — 
twenty-eight of which had abbots privileged to sit in parliament. 
In order to reconcile the people to these sweeping changes, 
Henry settled pensions for life on many of the monks and 
abbots, gave large donations to his most favoured courtiers, 
and estabHshed six new bishoprics, of which that of Oxford 
was taken from the see of Lincoln. 

In conjunction with his ally the emperor of Germany, Henry 
declared war with France in 1544, landed at Calais with an 
army of thirty thousand men, and laid siege to the strongholds 



OF BANBUEY. 73 

of Boulogne and Montreuil. In order to fit oat tMs force for 
the field, as a matter of course the king wanted money, and 
not being so well versed as modern statesmen in the various 
interesting methods of imposing taxation, he was under the 
necessity of borrowing from those who had it. These gentry, 
however, required some more tangible security than royal pro- 
mises or exchequer bonds, so we find that a grant of the manor 
of Grimsbury, being part of the lands of the Priory of Bicester, 
was made to Thomas Blencowe of Marston St. Lawrence, for 
certain sums advanced by him to the crown. The manor in 
question consisted of seven hundred and sixty acres, and was 
sold by Blencowe to Sir Anthony Cope of Hanwell, vice-cham- 
berlain of the household to Queen Catharine Parr, the last of 
the monarch's many wives. 

In the year 1547, the Eighth Henry was consigned to the 
tomb, and Edward YI. ascended the throne. The duke of 
Somerset, the young king's uncle by the mother's side, held 
the high ofiice of " Protector of England" during tlie early 
part of the reign, and immediately set about the enactment of 
a law which gave the revenues of all guilds, chantreys, and 
colleges to the crown. The preamble premised that these funds 
should be devoted to good and godly uses — to erect gram- 
mar schools, augment the revenues of the universities, and 
make provision for the poor and needy. Cranmer and several 
other bishops opposed the measure, on the ground that it 
would unnecessarily impoverish the church ; but the influence 
of the protector was too strong for the primate, and the pro- 
posed bill passed into a law. 

The report of the commissioners appointed under the act 



74 THE HISTOEY 

states that in tlie parish of St. Mary, Banbury, there were four 
hundred and sixty persons of age, and that the guild or brother- 
hood in that parish had been founded by Henry Y. who had 
given certain lands and possessions for the maintenance of three 
priests, a clerk, and a sexton, who were to receive in all the 
sum of £25 6s. 8d. a year. The commissioners further bore 
testimony that the clear yearly value of the property of the 
guild amounted to £44? 15s. 9d. after paying £10 8s. to the 
maintenance of twelve poor men and women as well as £7 13s. 
6d. ground^rent to the lords of the manor. They directed 
the auditor and receiver to continue the payment of the two last 
mentioned sums as usual ; but the commissioners seem to 
have been of opinion that one preacher was sufficient for the 
duties of the office, and appointed William Barrington to the 
situation, with a yearly salary of £6 6s. 8d. Thus was dis- 
solved the brotherhood of Saint Mary, which had been in exis^ 
tence for 130 years. 

About this time, bishop Holbeach of Eochester was "trans- 
lated " from that diocese to the more lucrative emoluments of 
the see of Lincoln_j and thus became lord paramount of Banbury. 
In consequence of a previous bargain entered into between the 
court and the bishop-elect, the latter conveyed over to the 
king and his courtiers some thirty manors pertaining to the 
bisliopric, and among others that of Banbury was transferred 
to the crown. Thus was severed the connection that had 
existed for centuries between the inhabitants of the borough 
and their liege-lord the bishop — a connection, however, which 
had been materially weakened by the erection of Oxford into 
a bishox/s see. 



OF BANBURY* 7& 

following the example of this unworthy ecclesiastical 
superior, the Rev. Henrj Parry, being elevated to occupy 1;he 
prebend's stall in Lincoln cathedral, "gave, granted, bargained, 
and sold" the said prebendary — with the parsonage house 
thereunto appertaining — to Sir John Tiiynne and Sir Eobert 
Keylway, in consideration of certain " great sums of money'^ 
which he had received at their hands. In this transaction, 
the purchasers seem only to have been acting as agents for the 
duke of Northumberland, who, in 1551, for "divers causes, 
considerations, and recompences," sold the prebendal property 
in Banbury to the king, who was thus owner of the castle, 
lord of the manor, and proprietor of considerable territorial 
possessions, both in the town and its immediate neighbourhoods 



CHAPTER YII. 

The disputed Succession, — Ladj^ Jane Grey. — How Banbury acted. — Its^ 
Loyalty and Reward.— The first Charter of Incorporation. — Great Rejoicings. 
— Mysteries of the Middle Ages. — " Ride a Cock Horse." — Antiquated Modes^ 
of Punishment.— The Borough's first Member. — The Bye-Laws. — Re-estab- 
lishment of the Church of Rome. 

AYING reigned only six years, the youthful king 
Edward was consigned to the tomb, and as the event 
was followed by a dispute concerning the succession — a quarrel 
in which the inhabitants of Banbury took an active part — it 
is necessary to the proper understanding of the question, that 
there should be a brief explanation as to the origin of the 
disagreement. 



76 THE HISTORY 

The late king had two sisters by the father's side, Mary 
and Elizabeth; but through the instrumentality of the 
powerful duke of Northumberland, a rival was found to contest 
their claims. The lady Jane Grey, a grandaughter of Mary 
Tudor the youngest sister of Henry YIII., had been married to 
Guildford Dudley, fourth son of the duke of Northumberland; 
and prior to Edward's decease, this ambitious noble had pre- 
vailed upon the dying king to cause letters patent to be drawn 
up, setting aside his own half sisters, and naming the lady 
Jane as his successor. On the death of the royal youth, 
Northumberland was anxious to secure the persons of the two 
princesses, and concealing the fact that their sovereign and 
brother had passed away from the cares of earth, he caused 
the pliant council to write to them, requesting their presence 
at that brother's sick-bed. Mary, who was then in the north, 
hurried up on receipt of the summons, and had proceeded as 
far as Hunsdon in Hertfordshire, when a letter reached her 
from the earl of Arundel, informing her of her brother's death, 
and warning her of the danger to which she would be exposed 
if she trusted herself in Northumberland's power. On receipt 
of the inteUigence, she galloped off to EramJingham in Suffolk, 
whence she summoned the nobles to repair to her standard, 
and gave orders that throughout England she should be pro- 
claimed its queen. 

Sir Thomas Pope of Wroxton and Sir Anthony Cope of 
Hanwell were among the number of those who espoused their 
legitimate sovereign's cause; and acted upon by their influence, 
as well as by a sense of the justice of Mary's claim, the inhabi- 
tants of Banbury assembled in full conclave at the great cross 



OF BANBURY. 77 

in the horse fair, and there formal proclamation was made, 
that she alone was the lawful inheritor of the crown. Nor 
did they rest satisfied with merely joining in the cry of " God 
save the queen ! " for a band of volunteers were enrolled upon 
the spot, and joining the levies of the earl of Huntingdon, 
gathered from the counties of Bucks and Northampton, 
amounting in all to four thousand men, marched off to Suffolk 
to support the cause of their royal mistress. By their contri- 
butions of money and the munitions of war, those who 
remained at home manifested their zeal equally with those who 
betook themselves in arms to the tented field ; and when the 
forces of Northumberland melted away like snow before the 
sun ; when their ambitious leader sought by the most abject 
submission to avert his doom ; when the Banbury warriors 
returned to their homes after having assisted in achieving a 
bloodless victory ; the queen showed that she was not unmind- 
ful of those by whose aid she had succeeded in ascending the 
throne. 

On the 21st of January, 1554, the first year of queen 
Mary's reign, she granted a charter of incorporation to the 
town of Banbury, by which it was raised to the dignity of a 
free corporate borough. This document prescribed that it was 
to be governed by a bailiff, twelve aldermen, and a like number 
of councillors, described therein as " capital burgesses,'' who 
were conjointly to form the body corporate, with authority to 
plead as such in courts of law, to have a common seal, and to 
acquire lands or other possessions. The baiHff — or, as we 
should now call him, the mayor — was to be elected annually 
by the corporation from among the twelve aldermen; and 



78 THE HISTORY 

vacancies which might, from time to time, arise among their 
number, were to be filled up by the votes of the aldermen 
alone from the ranks of the lower branch of the council. Such 
vacancies as might occur among the twelve burgesses, arising 
from promotion, expulsion, or death, were to be filled up by 
the votes of the whole council, from among the "discreet'' 
inhabitants of the borough. It will thus be seen that the 
people at large had but little to do with the election or appoint- 
ment of their civic rulers — the first chief magistrate and all 
the other members of the corporation having been specially 
appointed by the crown in the first instance, and authorised to 
fill up such vacancies as might occur among their number. 

The bounds of the borough included the space within the 
gates, and were nearly co-extensive with the present limits. 
A serjeant-at-mace was to be appointed by the council, and 
constables and other officers to be chosen annually. A court 
of record was to be held every third Monday, before the high 
steward or his deputy, the chief magistrate, two aldermen, and 
a like number of common councillors, who were authorised to 
settle all actions or complaints, when the sum in dispute did 
not exceed five pounds. 

A weekly market was to be held on Thursdays, and two 
fairs in the course of the year — one on the feast of 8aint Peter 
and the other on the feast of Saint Luke — each of which was 
to last three days. During the continuance of these fairs, a 
court of ^' pied pouldre" was ordered to be held, the name of 
which was derived from the Prench, and signifying " dusty- 
foot'' in allusion to the class of ofi'enders whom it was intended 
to try. This court, the name of which gradually came to be 



OF BANBUEY. 79 

corrupted into " pie powder/' consisted of the same members 
as the court of record, and was entrusted with power to repress 
such disturbances as might arise at the fairs, as well as 
summarily to punish with fine or imprisonment all who might 
then misconduct themselves within the compass of the borough 
bounds. The amount of such fines, together with the sums 
levied for " piccage and stallage,'"' the charges for assaye of 
bread, wine, and ale, as well as the proceeds of all forfeitures, 
■waifs, and strays, were ordered to be paid into the corporation 
treasury — the town council on its part promising to pay into 
the royal exchequer the sum of £6 13s. 4d. a year. 

The charter next ordained that the bailiff, aldermen, and 
twelve burgesses of Banbury should be empowered to send a 
member to parliament, and for this purpose they were to 
nominate and elect " a discreet burgess of the said borough," 
who should have like privileges and powers in the house of 
commons as the members returned by other boroughs in the 
kingdom. This was sometimes regarded as the reverse of a 
favour, seeing that legislators had not then learned to pay for 
the honour, and were required to be maintained at the expence 
of the place for which they were returned. Thus many places 
— Deddington amongst the rest — memoriaHsed the crown that 
they might be freed from the burden of sending members to 
the house of commons, although they would now jump at the 
chance. There is accordingly a strict injunction given in tlie 
charter, that the burgess thus elected was to be present when- 
ever parliament should assemble, and there remain whilst the 
house should continue to hold its sittings, '^ at the burden and 
costs of the said borough and parish of Banbury .''' Prom this 



80 THE HISTORY 

it would appear that the doctrine broached in the people's 
charter, for the constituencies to pay their members, is not 
such a new-fangled notion as many people consider it ; but 
that the principle at least was embodied in the first charter of 
incorporation that was granted to Banbury. 

The corporation was empowered to hold law days twice a 
year, and levy a rate of " frankpledge" of all the inhabitants 
and residents in the borough. Bye-laws were also authorised 
to be enacted by the same body, not only for their own govern- 
ment, but for that of the inhabitants at large — provided that 
such bye-laws should not militate against the statutes of the 
realm. 

Such then was the charter under which Banbury first took 
its place among the other corporate boroughs in the kingdom ; 
and although the idea of a close corporation, like that of which 
we have sketched the outline, would now be scouted with con- 
tempt by all, yet in those days it was hailed with gladness, as 
a distinguished token of the sovereign's favour. In great state 
the newly-appointed members of council held their first court 
dinner, on which they spent the sum of £1 14s. in the purchase 
of candlemas geese, good fat capons, hares, rabbits, and 
haunches of venison. These they washed down with copious 
libations of humming home-brewed, and finished off with a 
" pottle" of sack 

Nor was the rejoicing confined to the members of the cor- 
poration ; as a special performance was got up for the amuse- 
ment of the populace, and one of those "mysteries of the 
middle ages," concerning which so much has been written, 
was brought out with unprecedented splendour as a sort of 



OP BANBURY. 81 

general jubilee. The tradesmen of the town are represented 
as having liberally contributed to the expence ; and in its gor- 
geous magnificence, the pageant provided on this occasion is 
stated to have far surpassed all previous exhibitions. It must, 
indeed, have been unique of its kind. Lads of the town and 
men from a distance, hired performers and supernumerary 
amateurs, were dressed up to personify the well-known char- 
acters of holy writ. The fabled gods of a motley heathen my- 
thology were there represented — there too were impersonations 
of the heroes and heroines of a remote antiquity. There were 
Saint Catharines and Mary Magdalenes side by side with fawns 
and satyrs — Jupiter poising his thunderbolts and Judas betray- 
ing his Master — Apollo might have been seen hobnobbing 
with the " sweet singer of Israel" — Sampson and Hercules 
were side by side — Neptune had come up from the bed of the 
Cherwell to take juxta position with Alexander the Great. 

On swept the gorgeous but incongruous procession, en route 
to the Bear Garden where the pageant was to be enacted. The 
horns were braying, the cymbals clashing, the drums thunder- 
ing forth their loudest notes, and if the music was not of such 
a character as would have satisfied the fastidious taste of 
modern critics, it was sufficiently sonorous to awaken the slum- 
bering echoes of Crouch hill, and to reverberate back from the 
wooded wilds of Warkworth. The flapping banners fluttered 
in the breeze, and waved more gaily still as, seated on a milk 
white charger, came the glittering representative of '^ Our lady 
Saint Mary." In the dazzling splendour of her robes, she far 
outshone the surrounding throng ; and as the procession pauses 
by the great cross for the opening scene of the pageant — the 



S2, THE HISTOET 

prologue, as it were, of the forthcoming drama — it is easy to 
learn the origin of the celebrated stanza, which has caused the 
name of this borough to become so familiar as a household 
word, in every clime where our language is spoken, or where 
the far-stretching dominions of our sovereign extend : 

" Eide a cock-horse, to Banbury Cross ! 
To see a fine lady ride on a white horse ! 
Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes, 
She shall have music wherever she goes." 

But not only did the newly-constituted authorities strive to 
amuse the well-disposed among the people; they also lost 
no time in taking the steps necessary to restrain the lawless. 
Tliey erected a Town Hall in the Market Place, where the 
pillory had formerly stood, and here were held the Courts of 
Eecord and " Pie Powder,'* as well as the meetings of the alder- 
men and councillors. Close to this was an enormous wooden 
structure, brought from the castle, and so cumbrous was it, that 
it could not be taken out by the gate, but had to be heaved 
over the castle wall. In effecting this, a considerable portion 
of the rampart gave way, and had to be repaired at the cost of 
the borough. It may be interesting to know that the bill came 
to " four pence V and that for carrying the timber of this 
erection, not inappropriately denominated " the cage," from 
the castle to the new hall, three men were paid six-pence 
a-piece, whilst Nicholas Sturgeon and John the carpenter 
received six-and-eight-pence for setting it up. 

As the pillory had been taken down, some other mode of 
prompt punishment for culprits must be provided. A pair of 
moveable stocks were consequently constructed, in which trans- 



OF BANBURY. 83 

gressors might be exposed to the public gaze, in different 
quarters of the now incorporated borough. But a still more 
effectual punishment ?ras provided for those amiable ladies 
who were then, as they are still, irreverently termed " scolds," 
simply because they make a liberal use of those gifts which 
God has given them, and allow their tongues to outrun their 
discretion. The same simple and efficacious mode of punish- 
ment was resorted to in the case of fraudulent bakers — 
whose weights were unjust, or their bread adulterated — of 
brewers whose beer would not stand the test, or their measures 
would not hold the quantum — of pickpockets, thieves, and petty 
larcenists, always supposing that they were taken in the act. 
A small stream called the '^ Cuttle brook" flowed past the west 
and south fronts of the castle, turned the machinery of the 
Cattle mill nigh where the Bear inn now stands, and fed a 
muddy pool at the lower end of the Market Place. By the 
side of this pond, the '^ cucking-stool" was placed, which, like 
the stool of repentance in the kirk of Scotland, was a seat 
rather to be shunned than courted. To this " easy chair" 
offenders were securely strapped; by means of a crane they 
were hoisted on high ; at the pull of a cord, the seat came in 
pieces and was left dangling in the air ; whilst the transgres- 
sor dropped full " squash" into the troubled waters. It may 
well be fancied that this would be as effectual a method of 
punishing fraudulent tradesmen as any amount of pecuniary 
penalty; nay, it may even be hinted that there are some few 
husbands so hard-hearted, as occasionally — when under extra- 
ordinary temptation — to wish that the pond was there still ; 
but it must be borne in mind that this mode of punishment 



84 THE HISTORY 

was not without its inconveniences, as towards the close of 
the eighteenth century, a culprit died from an over-dose of the 
discipline, and the cucking-stool was forthwith abolished. 

The next step taken by the members of the corporation was 
to exercise their new-born privilege of electors ; so after looking 
about them, their choice fell upon Mr. Thomas Denton — a 
gentleman who had previously been sheriff of the counties of 
Oxford and Berks — who was accordingly returned as the first 
representative of Banbury in parliament. He sat for the bor- 
ough in the second and third parliaments of queen Mary; but 
in the fourth, he was returned as member for the county, 
and in this session of the legislature there is no record of a 
return from Banbury. Indeed it is perfectly possible that no 
writ was issued to the borough for that parliament, seeing that 
its former representative was not to be moulded to the will af 
the government, and refused to become a mere tool in the hands 
of the executive. On the dissolution of the house, in the 
month of January, 1555, he was one of those committed 
to the Queen's Bench for " contumacy,'^ in having refused to 
attend the meetings of the house of commons, when he found 
that its members were bent on the enactment of measures of 
which he disapproved. John Denton, the son of their former 
representative, was returned as member for the borough to the 
fifth parliament summoned by queen Mary, and he continued 
to represent it during the few remaining years of her reign. 

The next topic for consideration will be the bye-laws that 
were enacted by the corporation in 1558, both for the guid- 
ance of the members of that body and for the government of 
their fellow-townsmen. It was therein commanded that if any 



OP BANiJUEY. 85 

man should be lawfully elected to the office of chief magistrate 
and refuse to serve^ he was to be committed to prison, without 
bail, until he had paid a fine of £20 to the borough funds ; 
and if any man should refuse to act as alderman, common 
councillor, constable, or any other office in the borough, after 
having been duly elected, he was required to pay a penalty of 
forty shillings, and also to be incarcerated for two days. 

On the mornings of "Ascension,'' " Corpus Christi," and of 
every fair, each alderman arid councillor was required to array 
himself in his Sunday's garb, and present himself by eight 
C'clock at the house where the chief magistrate resided. Here 
they were to form in procession and accompany the high 
bailiff to the market cross, where the usual proclamation was 
directed to be made. Tliey were then to return in the same 
order to the bailiff's house and were afterwards to be at liberty 
to mind their own business. At one o'clock, p.m., on the day 
of the feast of " St. Michael the Archangel," all the members 
of the corporation were again enjoined to repair to the residence 
of the chief magistrate, each arrayed in his "best apparel;" that 
they should accompany the high bailiff to the parish church ; 
that they were there to kneel together in the presence of the 
Eucharist; that they were to offer up their joint prayers with 
the people, and to make common supplication to heaven's high 
King. 

It was also directed, that on the election of a new chief 
magistrate, the retiring high bailiff should hand the royal mace 
over to his successor, as the sign and and symbol of his deputed 
authority; that the person appointed to that office should not be 
at Hberty to absent himself from the borough for a longer period 



86 THE HISTORY 

than a week at a time, without having previously appointed a 
sufficient deputy, whose nomination should have met with the 
approval of the council. Whenever the members of the coun- 
cil should be engaged in municipal business, they were all to 
be arrayed in their gowns of office ; and none of them was at 
any time to be at liberty to absent himself from the town for 
three weeks in succession, under a penalty of forty shillings, 
unless he had previously obtained leave of absence under the 
hand and seal of the chief magistrate. 

The freedom of the town, and liberty to commence business 
therein, might be obtained either by apprenticeship or purchase. 
In the former case, the apprentice was to serve his master for 
the space of seven years, and at the expiry of that period, he 
was to pay a shilling to the corporation and fourpence to the 
town clerk. But if the freedom of the town was obtained by 
purchase, the candidate was required to pay twenty shillings to 
the corporation, a shilling to the town clerk, and a penny to 
the relief of the prisoners and the poor. By way of ridiculing 
the very limited privileges conferred by the freedom of this 
borough, when compared with those enjoyed by persons of the 
same class resident elsewhere, it came to be a byeword, that 
when a freeman of Banbury found three pigs lying together in 
the street, he was at liberty to rouse the middle one and lie 
down in his place. AYhoever originated the joke deserved the 
pillory, for there is no mention of this privilege made in the 
bye-laws. 

Two wardens were to be appointed from every trade, who 
were authorised to make rules for the guidance of those ordin- 
arily engaged in that particular calling, provided that such 



OP BANBtJRY. 87 

regulations Were neither prejudicial to the interests of the cor- 
poration, nor at variance with the laws of the land. But before 
any such rules should be binding on the trade, they must be 
approved of by the chief magistrate and court of aldermen. 
Provided that speedy justice could be obtained in the local courts 
of law, no inhabitant was to be at liberty to enter an action 
against another in any tribunal out of the borough, under a 
penalty of one day^s imprisonment and payment of a fine of 
twenty shillings. In conclusion, all the inhabitants were or- 
dered to be obedient to those in authority, and to comply with 
every requirement of the high bailiff and justices of the peace ; 
or, for any act of disobedience, the penalty was two days' im- 
prisonment and loss of freedom. 

AVhilst Banbury was thus occupied with the regulation and 
settlement of its municipal affairs, the whole kingdom was con- 
vulsed from one end to the other. The queen had espoused 
Don Pbilip of Spain and had re-estabhshed the Eoman Catho- 
lic religion. Both houses of parliament had voted an address 
to the king and queen, professing to acknowledge that they had 
been guilty of a great crime in having departed from the faith 
of their fathers, beseeching their majesties to intercede in their 
behalf and to make their peace with the papal see. Pope Ju- 
lius III. was no inexorable prelate, and gladly received his 
erring flock back into the bosom of the Eoman fold. But the 
confiscated estates were never restored; for those who had 
reaped the greatest share of the plunder took good care to have 
repeated assurances both from the pope and the queen, that the 
ecclesiastical property should never be enquired into, and that 
the whole of the church and abbey lands should remain in 



SS THE niSTOEY 

the hands of their then possessors. Thus it was, that although 
the creed of the Eoman Catholic church was again the estab- 
lished religion of the land ; yet in the loss of its princely re- 
venues, its splendour was gone ; shorn of their wealth, the 
temporal powers of its priesthood had departed for ever. 

Eor some time, the queen's health had been in a very crit- 
ical condition, her malady having been mistaken by her 
physicians for a state to which it bore a kindred appearance, 
and improper remedies having been applied, she was borne to 
the tomb in 155S, after a reign of five years and four months. 



CIIAPTEE YIII. 
El)z ^tiQH of (Elmm OT^1bct&. 

return to Protestantism. — Anew Code of Local Laws. — The Qnecn Ex- 
communicated. — Murder of a Drayton Farmer. — Anthony Pope, Esq. M.P. — 
llichard Fiennes, Esq. Broughton. — Public Transactions from 1585 to 1595- 
— How the Yicar was treated. — Banbury Castle leased to the Family of 
Broughton. — Patents and Monopolies. — Demolition of Banbury Cross. 

NE of tlie first steps taken by queen Elizabeth was to 
secure the ascendancy of the principles of the Eeform- 
ation ; but with a view to quiet the fears of her Roman Catho- 
lic subjects, she retained the services of eleven members of 
the previous administration, adding however eight others to 
them, whose principles were more in accordance with her own. 
She recalled those friends of protestantism who had been ex- 
iled from their country on account of their religious opinions. 



or BANBURY, 89 

and set the captives at liberty who were imprisoned for con- 
science sake. These and other indications of hsr intentions so 
alarmed the bishops that they refused to assist at the corona- 
tion ; and it was not without difficulty that his right reverend 
lordship of Carlisle was at last prevailed on to of&ciate at the 
ceremony. 

A parliament was summoned ; and to show how they man- 
aged matters in those days, it may be as well to state what sort 
of freedom of choice was allowed to the electors. Pive candi- 
dates were nominated by the ministry for boroughs, and three 
for counties ; from these, the few who were entrusted with the 
privilege of selection were permitted to make choice, and the 
sheriff or other returning officer was allowed to notify the 
election of none other than one of those thus permitted to be put 
in nomination. The famous Sir Prancis Walsingham, after- 
wards one of Elizabeth's most favoured ministers, was recom- 
mended by lord Burleigh as one of the candidates for Banbury, 
and on him the choice of the corporation fell. In this parlia- 
ment, newly-erected monasteries were suppressed, and the 
queen declared " governess" of the church; the statutes en- 
acted in king Edward's reign, which had been repealed in that 
of Mary were again confirmed ; bishops and incumbents were 
forbidden to alienate their revenues ; whoever should deny the 
queen's supremacy, for the first ofFence was to forfeit both land 
and goods, for the second denial was to be subject to the pen- 
alty of a praemunire, and for the third transgression was to be 
adjudged guilty of high treason. 

In aiding the protestants of Prance, Elizabeth had emptied 
her own exchequer, and in 15C3, aparhament was summoned 



90 tHE HISTORY 

for the purpose of recruiting her exhausted finances. Siif 
Francis Walsingham was again returned for Banburv, but as 
he was also elected for Lyme Eegis in Dorset, in the neigh- 
bourhoo J of which town he had considerable property, he made 
choice of the latter seat, and the borough was represented by 
Mr. Owen Brereton. 

On the 24th of April, 1564, a "great inquest" was held on 
the queen's behalf in this locality, and the following precepts 
were ordered to be enforced : — All shops and shop windows, 
used for the purpose of buying or selling, were to be closed on 
festivals and on the sabbath day — whilst each man and woman 
was strictly enjoined to attend divine service in the parish 
church. All who should transgress this order, whether by 
opening their shops for trade purposes, by following their daily 
occupations at home, or by neglecting to attend the parish 
church, without a good and valid excuse, were for every such 
offence to pay the sum of three shillings and fourpence ; and 
licensed victuallers were prohibited from serving their cus- 
tomers, during the hours of divine service, under a like penalty. 
One half of these fines was to be appropriated to the funds of 
the corporation, and the remaining portion devoted to the re- 
lief of the poor. 

No person whatever was to receive any inmate or sub-tenant 
into his house, without having first obtained the sanction of 
the high bailiff and justices of the peace, under a penalty of 
six-and-eightpence in money and two days' imprisonment. If 
such inmate, or sub-tenant, should be allowed to remain for 
twelve days, without the requisite permission^ the offender was 
ordered to pay a fine of forty shillings, and also to forfeit his 



OF BA^*BUllY. 91 

freedom of the town. There is every reason to believe that 
this stringent enactment was mainly directed against the pro- 
fessors of the Eoman Catholic religion, for the purpose of pre- 
venting them from receivhig into their houses any of the wan- 
dering clergy appertaining to their faith, who appear to have 
been regarded with strong suspicion by the authorities consti- 
tuted under the new regime. 

There were several regulations for cleansing the streets, but 
every man was ordered to find his own scavenger ; and those 
resident in the principal thoroughfares were directed to clean 
in front of their dwellings every quarter of a year, under a 
penalty of three shillings and fourpence for each neglect. Por 
those dwelhng in Mill Lane and Scalding-lane — the latter of 
which is now known as Pish Street — once a year was con- 
sidered sufficient, and twenty -pence was the penalty for non- 
compKance. The slaughter-houses of the butchers were ordered 
to be washed out once a week. The Cuttle brook from North 
Bar to Cornhill was to be cleansed out annually, at the expence 
of the owners of the adjoining property ; and thence by the 
Market Place, along the Cow fair to the east end of Bridge 
street, by those who dwelt on the north side of the way. No 
person was to be at liberty to sweep their gutters into the 
channel of the brook in question, throw filth therein, set their 
"honey barrels" or other vessel to soak in its waters, or 
allow their ducks or geese to paddle in the stream. The 
brook was not to diverted from its proper channel without the 
consent of the court leet, under a penalty of six-and -eight- 
pence. No sheepskins were to be laid to soak in the Cherwell, 
within twenty feet of the bridge, and no carrion was to be de- 



9^ THE HISTORt 

posited, nor water-closet emptied, on the Goose leys nigli tte 
bridge-end. Tour places were pointed out for depositing scra- 
pings and manure — one in North Bar street, one in South 
Ear street, a third in Broad street, which was then called the 
Coal Bar, and the fourth was to be twelve feet from the high- 
way, nigh the house of William Perkins, wherever that inter- 
esting domicile might happen to have been situated. One of 
tlie most singular regulations of what we cannot help regard- 
ing as a somewhat eccentric age, was that no person was to be 
allowed to carry manure from the town except between the 1st 
of May and the festival of St. Michael the archangel. No 
doubt many of these enactments were to be attributed to the 
appearance of the plague in England, which had been brought 
over to this country by the army of the earl of Warwick, who 
in consequence of its devastations, had been compelled to sur- 
render the city of Havre to the Trench. This formidable ir- 
ruption of the dreaded pestilence swept away great numbers 
of the people, and in London alone, in the course of a single 
year, twenty thousand persons are reported to have died. The 
llev. Thomas Bracebridge, who was at this time vicar of Ban* 
bury, speaks of it as a sharp rod wherewith the Almighty 
chastises his erring sons, and one which he had often seen 
whisked about his own ears, but happily without its having 
fallen on his shoulders. 

The " farmer of the parsonage" was ordered to maintain a 
proper fence around the churchyard, to keep out swine and 
other "undecent cattle," on pain of forty shillings for every 
three weeks' neglect. No grunters were to be permitted to 
wander about the streets without a ring in their snouts ; whilst 



OP BANBURY. &8 

on market days, they were to be confined to the pig-stye, as it 
was especially ordered, tliat " no hogs should go abroad within 
the Market Place, or in any street where a market is held, 
upon the market day, ringed or unringed/' 

The landlords of public houses were allowed some special 
and rather singular privileges, for no person excepting inn- 
keepers or licensed victuallers was to be allowed to purchase 
eggs and again offer them for sale, either wholesale or retail, 
under a penalty of six-and-eightpence for every offence. But 
they were also subject to stringent regulations ; for no inn- 
keeper was to allow any journeyman, servant, apprentice, o«i* 
child, to play at any unlawful game in his house, under a like 
penalty, and furthermore to be imprisoned for two days. All 
common brewers were enjoined to make their ale '^ good and 
wholesome for man's body,'^ and not to send it out to their 
customers until it had received the approbation of the "tasters," 
or the person so offending was to forfeit a similar pecuniary 
penalty. 

There were other regulations relative to the rental paid by 
the occupants of sheep pens, which was to be a penny oa 
market days and fourpence at the great fairs for every full-sized 
pen ; to the places appointed for the sale of fish and fruit ; to 
the prohibition of journeymen from keeping stalls in the 
markets or fairs, except in a specified locality, unless they had 
previously taken up their freedom, in which case they were at 
liberty to erect their stall in any unoccupied part of the ground. 
Prostitutes were forbidden to walk the streets, butchers and 
chandlers were enjoined not to exceed the price fixed by the 
chief magistrate for tallow and candles, and those who began 



94 THE HISTOKY 

a fray were ordered to be locked up until tliey had paid a fine 
of tliree-and-fourpence ; but if blood bad been drawn, the 
penalty was to be doubled and the weapon forfeited. Por the 
safety of the inhabitants from fire, it was ordered that no corn 
rick, faggot stack, furze hovel, or similar inflammable erection, 
was to be raised within the bounds of the borough, except in 
such places as the high bailiff and magistrates should point out. 
Such were the leading enactments resolved on at the "great 
inquest," and they are so far interesting as they are calculated 
to give us an insight into the manners of the age. The reader 
must, however, leave them for a time, in order to take a glance 
at affairs in general. Shortly after his elevation to the 
pontifical dignity, pope Pius Y. warmly espoused the cause of 
the beauteous but unfortunate Mary queen of Scots, who was 
at that time a prisoner in England. On the refusal of Eliza- 
beth to comply with his demands, he issued a bill by which she 
was declared to be excommunicated, her claim to the throne 
pronounced null and void, and all her subjects absolved from 
their vows of allegiance. As a counterpoise to this ecclesias- 
tical thunder, she summoned a parliament to meet her at 
Westminister, to which Mr. Anthony Cope, of Hanwell, 
Hardwick, and Grimsbury, was returned as representative for 
the borough of Banbury. He was a thorough-going puritan, 
and in the efforts which that party so strenuously made for a 
further reformation in matters of religion, he zealously co- 
operated with his coadjutors. On the other hand, Elizabeth 
and her ministers contended that as she was supreme head of the 
church, she alone had the right of deciding in all matters of 
doctrine, discipline, and worship. A reformer named Strick- 



OF BANBURY. 95 

land laid a measure before the house of commons for the 
amendment of the liturgy — a step which so irritated the queen 
that she summoned him before the council, and prohibited 
him from again appearing in parliament. But such a stretch 
of the royal prerogative was rather too arbitrary to be put up 
with in silence, even by the submissive representatives of those 
days ; and finding that it was likely to cause a much greater 
ferment than she expected it would, Elizabeth sent him word 
that she had removed the prohibition, and that he might 
return to his seat in the house. This parliament met on the 
second of April, 1571, and was dissolved on the twenty-ninth 
of the following May. 

A decree of the court of Chancery, made on the twenty- 
eighth day of November in the same year, ordered that the sum 
of £10 8s. should be paid annually to the high bailiff, alder- 
men, and burgesses of this borough, by the receiver of her 
majesty's revenues in Oxfordshire, to be applied to the relief 
of twelve poor men and women; and a further sum of 
£6 6s. 8d. for " an assistant to serve the cure in Banbury." 
These sums were directed to be paid quarterly, on particular 
festivals named in the decree. 

It was at this period also, that the inhabitants of the district 
were horrified by the discovery of a double murder — committed 
by a criminal of high rank — one of the victims being his 
tenant and the other his tool. Por a length of time, the 
Grevilles of Drayton had enjoyed all the honours that wealth 
can confer, and Ludovic Greviile was now the unworthy 
representative of that far-descended race. He had large 
estates in the counties of Oxford, Gloucester, and Warwick ; 



m THE HISTORY 

but in consequence of his indulgence in extravagant habits, 
his pecuniary liabilities became heavier than he could meet. 
To extricate himself from this unpleasant dilemma, he planned 
a crime as diabolical in its nature as it was prompt in its 
execution. A wealthy old bachelor was his Drayton tenant, 
and he was invited over to the mansion in Gloucestershire, to 
partake of his landlord's hospitaUty, and to share in an ap- 
proaching season of festivity. Grateful for such a mark of 
unwonted condescension, and wholly unsuspicious of impending 
danger, the victim readily fell into the snare. On his arrival, 
he was in all respects treated as a highly-favoured guest, shown 
over the mansion, and his opinion asked relative to certain 
projected alterations. After dinner, he was freely plied with 
the best in the cellar, and resiled off to his bed-room in an 
advanced stage of inebriety. The dark hour approaches, when 
Murder rouses himself from his day-slumbers, shakes his 
grizzled locks, and stalks forth into the world on his errand 
of blood. The forms of two ruffians in Greville's employ may 
be seen stealthily creeping to the chamber where the farmer 
sleeps — the end of a cord is quietly introduced under his neck 
— a single " hitch" is dexterously formed — a strong man pulla 
at each end of the rope — there is the struggle of a minute and 
all is over. 

The body having been disposed of, one of the murderers 
was instructed to personate the Drayton farmer. He got into 
the bed where the foul deed had been so recently consummated, 
and pretended to be taken suddenly and dangerously ill. A 
notary was sent for ; and under the apparently dying man'3 
instructions, he draws up a will bequeathing the great bulk 



OF BANBURY. 97 

of the pseudo-testator's property to Ludovic Greville his 
much esteemed landlord and friend. Shortly afterwards, it 
was given out that the farmer was dead, and by virtue of the 
fabricated document, the guilty Greville enters on possession. 
But the justice of an avenging heaven rarely sleeps. His 
Gloucestershire mansion has now no charms for the murderer, 
and he hies him to his estates in Warwickshire. Whilst in 
Stratford-upon-Avon, one of his tools attempted to drown the 
horrors of his remorse in the wine cup, and whilst in a state 
of intoxication, he let fall some words of fearful import. These 
reached the ears of his master, who resolved on the instant 
that he too should be silenced for ever. Giving the other his 
clue, he sent them both on a pretended errand ; and whilst on 
their way, he who had given so great a licence to his tongue 
was stabbed to the heart by his accomplice in crime, and his 
body thrown into a deep pit. The discovery of the corpse led 
to an investigation, whereby the guilt of the murderer was 
clearly brought home to him, and he in turn revealed the foul 
iniquity of his employer. Ludovic Greville was accordingly 
put upon his trial at Warwick, when in order to save his 
estates from confiscation, he refused to plead to the charge, 
and in accordance with a barbarous law, he was doomed to be 
crushed to death. 

Parliament was again summoned in 1576, and Mr. Anthony 
Cope was for the second time returned. In this session, he 
strenuously supported Mr. Wentworth, who, by his fearless 
advocacy of the independence of the house of commons, gave 
mortal ofPence to Elizabeth and her ministers. He urged that 
as parliament was the properly-constituted guardian and 



98 THE HISTORY 

exponent of tlie laws, its members should have full liberty to 
discharge the sacred trust confided to their hands. He sub- 
mitted that as sovereigns could only become kings or queens 
by law, they were bound to follow the course which the laws 
should prescribe, even though it should be at variance with 
their own will. These doctrines were, as a matter of course, 
exceedingly unpalateable in high places, and Wentworth was 
brought up before the star chamber — a fitting tribunal for 
tyranny to work its pleasure with its victims. But even in 
that arbitrary court, Wentworth would neither apologise nor 
recant ; and after he had been in the custody of the sergeant- 
at-arms for a month, he was restored to his liberty and to his 
seat in the house. However much puritanism may be decried 
— and in Banbury it seems early to have taken a firm root — 
however much its assert ors or abettors may be held up to 
ridicule — yet it is beyond a doubt that this country is more 
deeply indebted to the stubborn puritans of early times, for 
the liberties we now enjoy, than the detractors of these patriots 
are willing to acknowledge. 

In 1581, a new parliament was summoned, and the name 
of Mr. Cope is again recorded in its rolls. This session is 
chiefly remarkable for the severity of its enactments against 
the ancient faith. One specimen may suffice for many : Who- 
ever reconciled another to the church of Eome, or was him- 
self reconciled thereto, was declared guilty of treason. So 
much for liberty of conscience and the spirit of toleration as 
practised in " the golden days of good queen Bess."'* 

In a short session of parliament held in 1585, Eichard 
riennes, Esq. of Broughton, the descendant of lord Saye who 



OF BANBURY. 99 

was beheaded in Cheapside, was returned the representative for 
Banbury. In 1586, hostilities commenced with Spain, in 
which Sir Erancis Drake obtained considerable advantages over 
the naval resources of that power, both in the West Indies 
and in the bay of Cadiz. On the 7th of February, 1587, 
Mary queen of Scots was beheaded at Eotheringay, in the 
adjoining county of Northampton, and the heroism with which 
she met her death may be regarded as some atonement for the 
errors of her life. In 1588, England was invaded by the 
Spanish armada, consisting of a hundred and thirty vessels, 
manned by 8,450 sailors — exclusive of 2,000 galley slaves — 
having on board an army of 19,300 soldiers, and 2,600 brass 
cannon. The English admiral conducted himself with great 
bravery, and actually pursued this formidable armament to the 
very harbour of Calais, crippling or capturing all the stragglers 
he could come up with, but without engaging in a general 
action. Eventually, the bravery of English seamen, aided 
materially by the tempests of the deep, so shattered this mighty 
naval host, that one half of those who sailed forth so proudly 
from the coast of Spain never returned to their country to tell 
how they had fared. 

Parliaments were summoned in 1586, 1588, and 1592, to 
which Mr. Cope of Hanwell, was again returned as member 
for Banbury, and in which the queen and her faithful commons 
were ever disputing about questions of prerogative — her 
majesty strenuously asserting her right to the unquestioned 
exercise of arbitrary ])ower ; and the representatives of the 
people occasionally — although it might be rarely 

" With bated breath and whispering humbleness" — 
L.of C. 



100 THE HISTORY 

venturing to say a word or two in defence of the privileges of 
parliament and of the rights of the nation. In all these dis- 
cussions, the members for the borough stuck stoutly out for 
the liberty of the subject, for freedom of discussion, and for 
all the privileges of an independent legislature., 

A passing allusion has already been made to the Rev. Thomas 
Bracebridge, who for some years previously had been vicar of 
Banbury. He appears to have been an eminent and learned 
divine, the author of many classical and theological works ; 
but in consequence of his attachment to the principles of the 
early puritans, he had been suspended from the functions and 
emoluments of his office, through the instrumentality of the 
bishop of the diocese. The townsmen warmly espoused their 
pastor's cause ; and a memorial bearing the date of June 16th, 
1590, signed by ninety-five of the principal inhabitants, was 
presented to lord Burleigh praying that nobleman to use his 
influence in restoring their clergyman to his place among them. 
They urged on the attention of the lord treasurer and privy 
council, that Mr. Bracebridge had been deprived of his small 
living, in consequence of charges having been preferred against 
him, relating simply to " some matters of ceremonies," and 
that they had been so preferred by enemies of whose violence 
and wrong the whole country had heard. This memorial was 
backed by a petition from the deposed clergyman himself, in 
which he alludes to the fact of his- being well known to Sir 
William Knollys, controller of her majesty's household. He 
requested — if he could not again, be inducted into his living — 
that at all events he might be allowed to preach ; for his 
parishioners had ex;pressed, a deternjination to maintain him, 



OF BANBURY. 101 

whether he preached or not. As he tliat did not labour was 
not worthy of his maintenance^ so he wished to give his people 
some recompence for their kindness. He promised^ in the 
event of his request being complied with, that he would 
abstain from all controversial matters, except such as were 
condemned by lawful authority, and would endeavour, by all 
means, to live in peace and amity with his clerical brethren. 
Whether or not the conjoint application was successful, there 
is no record extant to show ; but Mr. Bracebridge was con- 
signed to his last resting-place in the church-yard, in 1593, 
in the 57 th year of his age. 

In 1595, the castle of Banbury and all its appurtenances, 
together with the castle orchard and the property belonging 
to the manor, which had been held aforetime by the bishops 
of Lincoln, were leased to William, Ursula, and Elizabeth 
riennes, the son and two daughters of Sir Eichard Kennes, 
owner of the barony of Broughton and manor of Shutford. 
The revenues arising from all courts leet and courts of the 
hundred, all waifs and strays, all goods and chattels of felons 
and fugitives, all the royal rents in Calthorpe, Neithrop, 
Swalcliffe, Shutford, Williamscote, Claydon, and several other 
villages, were in like manner leased to the same members of 
the riennes family, who, in return for these possessions and 
privileges, were on their part to pay into the royal exchequer 
the sum of £5 18s. a year. The fines arising from the courts of 
record and assize appear to have been the only property 
retained by the crown. 

The last parKament of queen Elizabeth was summoned to 
meet at Westminster on the 27th of October, 1601, and Sir 



102 THE HISTORY 

Anthony Cope, for he was now knighted, was again entrusted 
with the duties of local representative. At this time patents 
and monopolies were exceedingly oppressive ; and for want of 
wholesome competition, many of the necessaries of life were 
so extravagantly high in price, that great dissatisfaction was 
experienced. The trade in all the leading branches of com- 
merce was confined to those who had received a patent from 
the queen to deal in the article ; and the price of salt, for 
example, had been raised from sixteen pence to fifteen shillings 
a bushel. The independent members in the house. Sir 
Anthony Cope amongst the number, strenuously set their faces 
against these monstrous exactions ; and the queen, although 
not without reluctance, consented to cancel the most oppressive 
of the monopolies, and throw the trade open to competition. 
"What would be thought in our day of sentiments like the 
following, handed down as having been uttered by a high legal 
functionary ? The occasion was on the motion for granting a 
subsidy to the crown, and Mr. Serjeant HeyJe is the immortal 
orator : " I marvel much that the house should hesitate in 
granting a subsidy, or in the time of payment, when all we 
have is her majesty's, and she may lawfully at her pleasure 
take it from us ; yea, she has as much right to all our lands 
and goods as to any revenue of her crown.'' Opinions like 
these were hardly in unison with the sentiments enter- 
tained by the patriotic member for Banbury, whose name is 
consequently recorded among the leaders of the opposition. 
The close of the long reign of " the maiden queen" was 
signalised in Banbury by one of those acts of Yandalism into 
which the zeal of the puritans occasionally hurried them, and 



OF BANBURY. 103 

which were consummated by the populace from the mere love 
of mischief. Notwithstanding acts of parliament to the con- 
trary, there were still many Roman catholics in the town and 
leighbourhood— a circumstance to which Mr. Eracebridge 
^efers in the petition which he forwarded to the lord treasurer, 
lie states that " preaching is especially necessary here, because 
many recusants sojourn hard by the town ; who notwitlistand- 
ing their close keeping, may do much harm to tlie parishioners 
if papistry be not diligently laboured against, whereunto many 
of the inhabitants are too much inclined." Thus it seems 
that all the penal enactments of the legislature, for the sup- 
pression of the ancient faith, were wholly inadequate for that 
end — another proof, if testimony were needed, that persecution 
can never bring conviction to the mind, and that in all ages 
and for every creed, " the blood of the martyrs has been the 
seed of the church." 

I'rom the date of the execution of the earl of Essex, the last 
and best-beloved favourite of tlie queen — an event which took 
place in 1601 — the active mind of Elizabeth became seriously 
impaired, and the transaction of public business was disagree- 
able and irksome. The oppressed and consequently dissatis- 
fied adherents of the church of Rome, taking advantage of 
this altered state of things, began to wax bolder in the 
expression of their opinions. Under the strict rule of the 
puritans, the shows and pageants had been suppressed, and an 
attempt was now made by the catholics to revive them. The 
dresses were procured, the characters rehearsed, and a day fixed 
for the performance in Banbury. The procession of the per- 
formers had reached the high cross, and they were engaged 



104? I HE HISTOUY 

ill tlie prologue of tlie play, when a counter- demonstration 
issued from tlie Higli street, and a collision ensued between 
the excited partisans of the conflicting creeds. A regular 
inellee is described as taking place ; but the supporters of the 
reformed doctrines, having both numbers and the law upon 
their side, seem eventually to have had the best of the fray. 
Having succeeded in driving their antagonists out of the town, 
the rage of the populace took a new direction. Hammers and 
pick-axes w^ere procured, and the " goodly cross,^^ the symbol 
of the faith of the Eoman catholic world, surrounded as it was 
by many steps, was strewed in ruins through the horse fair. 
Of its shape, we have no authenticated record ; but there is 
little doubt that it was of the usual cruciform construction. 
There were at least three other " crosses^' in the town — thai 
in the market place, the white cross at the far end of West 
street, and the bread cross in what is now called Broad street^ 
but in consequence of its having been the place appointed for 
the sale of charcoal, was then denominated the coal bar. All 
these were more or less injured and some of them entirely des* 
troyed — as if the senseless memorials of a by-gone age could 
affect the theology of the passing hour. So thorough was the 
■work of destruction, that a writer of the time compares tlie state 
in which the crosses were left, to the stumps of trees when the 
the trunks are cut down, or to the conveniences by a road-side 
inn intended to aid a lazy horseman in mounting to the 
saddle. 

Nor did the deeds of demolition end here ; for the cry was 
raised, " to the church !" " to the church !" and to the church 
the crowd accordingly repaired, and worked their frantic will 



OF BANBURY. 105 

upon the statelj^ temple. The magnificent windows of stained 
glass were shivered to atoms, as savouring too strongly of 
idolatry, and the statuary and sculpture mutilated and defaced 
by the hands of those insensible to forms of beauty. To such 
an extent was the devastation carried, that the writer to whom 
we have referred charges the rioters with not having left the 
the leg or arm of an apostls, and says that the names of the 
churchwardens were the only inscription to be seen upon the 
w-alls. A puritanic official seems to have completed by night 
what the crowd begun by day ; for he then visited the house 
of prayer in the company of a friend and threw down the 
statues which the mob had spared* 

The death of Elizabeth occurred on the 24th of March, 
1603, and it may be said of her that her courage was exempt 
from rashness, and her active mind from a vain ambition. 
But the rivalry of beauty she could not brook ; her desire of 
of admiration was boundless and insatiable; jealousy often 
planted in her bosom its keenest sting ; her temper was oft 
shaken by the roughest sallies of anger, and gusts of passion 
not unfrequently caused the boldest to quake in lier presence. 




106 THE HISTOHY 



CHAPTER IX. 
Sr^e 5Slei5tt of Samts 31. 

Titles and Rank. — The King's first Parliament.— Sufvey of Banbury. — The 
New Charter. — Privilege versus Prerogative. — Local Baronets and what the 
Honour cost. — Ladies imprisoned in Banbury Castle. — Lazy Workmen set in 
the Stocks. — Death of Sir Anthony Cope. — Banbnry satirised for its zeal in 
Theolojry. — The Borough Armoury. — Sir Erasmus Dryden. — Death of the 
King. 

dispute occurred concerning tlie succession to the 
crown, and James VI. of Scotland, great-grandson of 
the eldest sister of Henry YIII. peacefully ascended the 
throne of England as James I. One of the first a-cts of this 
erudite but egotistic monarch, after his accession, was to 
revive the dormant honours of the house of Broughton, which 
had remained in abeyance since the battle of Barnet. Sir 
Ilichard Eiennes was called to the upper house by the old 
family title of lord Saye and Sele, and is represented as 
having been in all respects worthy of the honour. Sir 
Anthony Cope of Hanwell, who had been knighted by 
Elizabeth in 1590, was appointed high sheriff of the county, 
and his son William, who lived at Hardwick, received the 
honour of knighthood at the king's hand. Titles were now 
lavishly bestowed, for in the same year, 1603, Sir William 
Knollys, afterwards earl of Banbury, was raised to the 
peerage as baron Knollys of the Greys. In the course of the 
first six weeks after his accession, the accommodating king 



OF BANBURY. 107 

knighted no fewer than two hundred and thirty gentlemen, 
and among the number, Mr. John Pope of Wroxton received 
the accolade of a knight of the Bath. 

In the first parliament held during this reign, whicli met 
on the 19th of March, 1004, Sir William Cope was chosen 
representative for Banbury, his father Anthony having retired. 
The principles of liberty were now better understood than 
had been the case in the reigns of the Plantagenets or Tudors, 
and the representatives of the people also began to be in 
earnest in the assertion of popular rights. Printing had been 
introduced into the country for an hundred and thirty years, 
and its first-fruits were now found ready for the gathering. 
James claimed to be an absolute king ; but he had neither 
the firmness of purpose nor the decision of character requisite 
to enforce or support such a claim. He had no standing 
army whatever, a militia being in those days the sole mihtary 
force in the kingdom. The power of the middle classes was 
rapidly on the increase — that of the nobility as certainly on 
the wane. Vassalage and serfdom had gone out of use, and 
men had ceased to be bought and sold with the land they 
tilled. The king looked upon the house of commons as a 
mere committee of supply ; but the members regarded legis- 
lation as their province. They asserted their privileges as a 
legislative body ; they refused to vote the supplies for the 
crown, and were accordingly prorogued on the 7th of July. 

The gunpowder conspiracy and its detection, at the 
commencement of the ensuing session, appear to have some- 
what mollified the stubborn commons, who granted his majesty 
three subsidies and six fifteenths, payable in the course of the 



next four years. By a survey of Banbury in 1'606, it appears 
thst lord Saye and Sele was in possession of a considerable 
amount of property in the town, including the castle and 
adjoining orchard, the lordship of the hundred, the court leet 
and view of frankpledge, together with the rectory, tithe, and 
glebe-land. The corporation is reported as possessing mne 
houses in different parts of the town, sixteen cottages, eleven 
other tenements, the cuttle mill on the site now occupied 
by the Bear inn, besides garden and other ground both 
cultivated and waste. Mr. Henry Hawten is set down as a 
leaseholder of a good deal of property about Crouch, Easingdon, 
and the manor of Calthorpe. Besides these, there are 
enumerated in the report of the survey upwards of seventy 
" free tenants,'^ and sundry other shops and dwelling-houses 
held under letters patent. 

In 1608, lord Knollys of the Greys was chosen high 
steward of Banbury, and through his lordship's influence at 
court, another charter of incorporation was granted to the 
borough. By this it was provided, that in addition to the 
chief magistrate who was now to be called, the mayor, the 
twelve aldermen and six ehief burgesses, there were to be 
thirty "assistants" chosen from among the inhabitants, who 
were each to have a vote in the election of the mayor, and 
who were to aid him with their counsel whensoever xequisite. 
Vacancies were to be filled up as heretofore ; and the members 
of the corporation, who were elected for life, were empowered 
to choose a high steward of the borough, a recorder, a 
chambeilaic, and a town clerk. Justices of the peace were 
appointed, and their powers which were extensive defined at 



OF BANBURY. 109 

length. A gaol was to be erected, for- the safe keeping of 
transgressors, and a gallows constmcfced for the- execntion 
of criminals who should be found guilty of "felonies, murders, 
or other misdemeanours" committed within the compass of 
the borough bounds. The previous courts of record and "pie 
powder" were confirmed, at the former of which debts might 
now be recovered to tlie amount of £40. Two sergeants-at- 
mace were to be appointed, whose duty would be to serve all 
legal processes, and to carry the gilded and silvered maces in 
front of the mayor and corporation on occasions of state. The 
members of council, and all freemen of the borough, were 
exempted from serving upon county juries. A weekly wool 
market was estabhshed for the purpose of contributing to the 
sources of labour, and all freemen were empowered to buy and 
sell. The " king's hospital" was to be founded for the relief 
of twenty-four poor men and women, who might be disabled 
from earning their living; the hospital in question to be 
under the government of a guardian and three trustees, who 
were to form a corporate body, authorised to hold land to the 
yearly value of £40, the proceeds to be devoted to the purposes 
of the hospital. 

In 1610, the first parliament of king James was dissolved, 
in nearly every session of which there had. been a serious and 
still-deepening controversy between the house of commons 
and the crown, the former contending for ihe confirmation 
and extension of their growing privileges, and the latter 
sticking out as stoutly for prerogatives and pay. James 
used to say, he would not be content that his power should 
be divsputed ; but that he would be ever willing for the reason 



no THE HISTORY 

of his doing to appear, and to rule his actions according to his 
own laws. In the matter of cash, the house was both pen- 
urious and obstinate; but his majesty found out a ready, 
although it must be confessed a temporary method of raising 
those supplies which his people with-held. Eor ages previous, 
the honour of knighthood had been a mark of distinction con- 
ferred by sovereigns on their subjects ; but hereditary knight- 
hood was a thing unknown. The king, however, resolved On 
its establishment, and those knights who were desirous of the 
honour, and willing to pay for it, were raised to the dignity of 
baronets — an order established in 1611 — in which year Sir 
Anthony Cope of Hanwell and Sir Thomas Pope of Wroxton 
were both elevated to the new dignity. Two hundred 
baronets were created in all, and as the average amount 
paid by each of them for the title was somewhere about 
a thousand pounds, it proved no bad windfall to the needy 
monarch. 

Notwithstanding the severe and long-continued persecutions 
to which the professors of the Eoman catholic religion had 
been subject, in consequence of adhering to their secret con- 
victions, there were still many persons in the neighbourhood 
of that way of thinking, and neither rank nor sex formed a 
sufficient protection against the intolerant spirit of the age. By 
order of the privy council, transmitted to Sir Anthony Cope 
in 1612, he caused lady Stonor and several other ladies of 
rank to be apprehended on the charge of being suspected 
recusants, and consigned them to Banbury castle. Lord Saye's 
tenant by no means approved of being thus summarily ejected 
from his stronghold, in order to make room for the ladies and 



OF BANBURY. Ill 

their guards, and very naturally appealed to his landlord. 
On referring to the instrument that had been granted to him 
seventeen years previously, his lordship found that the property 
in question had been absolutely and unconditionally leased 
to his family for three lives, and that he was bound both to 
pay rent and keep the castle in repair. He remonstrated with 
Sir Anthony, to whom he pointed out the injustice of removing 
the occupant to whom the premises were let ; but the orders 
of the council admitted of no discretion, so the tenant was 
necessitated to turn out, under the promise of being remune- 
rated for his sudden removal. What recompence was given 
him, or how long the ladies were detained in custody, has not 
been exactly ascertained ; but it is by no means improbable 
that some of them were imprisoned until 1622, when in order 
to get into the good graces of the king of Spain, James gave 
orders that all recusants should be liberated. 

In the month of October, 1612, two enactments were 
resolved on by the corporation, which would sound rather 
strangely in modern times. They were adopted for the 
purpose of regulating labour and preventing idleness. Every 
day-labourer who should be out of employment was comman- 
ded to go to the leather-hall at six o'clock in the morning on 
every week-day, and there remain for one hour at least, unless 
he should previously have met with a job ; and if he was 
found idle in the course of the day, without having taken this 
step for the purpose of procuring employment, he was to be 
set in the stocks for two hours. The other b^e-law ordered 
that no handicrafts-man or artizan was to go to day-labour, 
or to work at any other trade than his own, provided that he 



112 THE HISTORY 

could obtain employment at the latter, under a like period of 
punishment in the stocks. The leather-hall, where the 
labourers were ordered to assemble, was a building fronting 
High street on one side, and Butcher Eow on the other, and 
immediately to the eastward of the present publishing office 
of the Banhury Advertiser. 

A parhament was summoned to meet on the fifth of April, 
1614, and the now venerable Sir Anthony Pope was induced 
to leave the privacy of his retirement at Hanwell, to engage 
once more in the stormy arena of party politics. He was 
returned as member for Oxfordshire, his son Sir William being 
at the same time representative for Banbury. But this house 
of commons was not one whit more docile than that which 
preceded it, and was dissolved in the following June. The 
decease of Sir Anthony occurred shortly afterwards, forty -three 
years subsequent to the date when he was first returned as 
member for Banbury ; and during the whole of this period, 
although not always its representative, he kept up an 
unbroken connection with the borough. He was buried at 
Hanwell where the sculptured marble transmits his memory, 
and where his funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Harris, 
whom he had formerly presented to the living. Notwith- 
standing that Sir Anthony was the consistent opponent of the 
court party in parliament, and the unflinching advocate of 
liberty, yet by the probity of his conduct and the moderation 
of his sentiments, he gained the esteem and respect of all — for 
Elizabeth conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and 
king James not only created him a baronet, but twice 
visited him at Hanwell with his queen and court. 



OF BANBUB,Y, 113 

The reputed sanctity of manners among tlie jjuritans of 
Banbury now drew upon the town the cutting sarcasms 
of the wits of the age. The " rare Ben Johnson," in his 
comedy of Bartholomew Fair, represents one of his characters 
— Zeal-of-the-Land Busy — a Banbury baker, who had aban- 
doned the dough-tub and oven, for the more lucrative avo- 
cation of " seeing visions and dreaming dreams." Braithwaite, 
too, in his " Drunken Barnaby^s Four Journeys," refers to 
the town in the following strain : — 

" To Banbury came I, O profane one \ 
There I saw a Puritane-one 
Hangins: of his cat on Monday, 
For killing of a mouse on Sunday." 

The same writer, in his " Strappado for the Devil," calls 

Bradford in Yorkshire the " Banbury of the North," and says 

that it also is famous for its " twanging ale, zeal, cakes, and 

cheese." Eichard Corbet, subsequently bishop of Oxford, in 

his Iter Boreale, thus refers to the walks in and about the 

church :-^ 

" If not for God's, for Mr. Whateley's sake. 
Level the walks ; suppose these pitfalls make 
Him sprain a lecture, or displace a joint 
In his long prayer, or in his fifteenth point." 

Notwithstanding the prevalence of puritanic principles in 
1615, the very era when these wags were writing, the borough 
was able to boast of its armourer and armoury — the former 
being paid the salary of £1 per annum, and the latter contain- 
ing four muskets and three corslets, with their furnishings 
complete, so that the town could arm and equip at least three 
"heavies" and a sharp-shooter. In 1619, the incorporated 



114 THE HISTOUY 

trades of the borough consisted of the blacksmiths, glovers, 
mercers, drapers, shoemakers, and bakers, each of whom paid 
a small sum yearly towards the corporation funds, the total 
amounting to £2 8s. 4d. 

Parliament was again summoned to assemble in the month 
of June, 1621, and Sir William Cope, bart. was returned once 
more as member for Banbury. Some five or six years previous 
to this period, that gentleman had rather a narrow escape from 
being raised to the peerage ; and it was only in consequence 
of his unwillingness to pay the large sum of £10,000, which 
was then the price of being dubbed "my lord," that the 
coveted honour was conferred upon Sir Phihp Stanhope, who 
appears to have been less chary in parting with his cash. 
The parliament voted two subsidies to the king ; but after a 
protracted sitting of six months, the members took it into 
their heads to enquire into grievances, which James regarded 
as an awful infringement on the royal prerogative, and accord- 
ingly prorogued the session. The house reassembled after a 
short recess ; but no better understanding seems to have been 
arrived at than before they broke up, the king on the one hand 
stretching wide the royal prerogative, and the commons on the 
other entering a solemn protestation in the journals of the 
house, firmly claiming their right to freedom of speech, and 
maintaining that the liberty of the subject and the privileges 
of parliament were the undoubted birthright and inheritance 
of the people. James was so enraged that he tore the protest 
from the journals with his own hand, and almost immediately 
afterwards dissolved the house. 

In 1623, a pestilential visitation swept across the country, 



OF BANBURY. 115 

carrying off many of tlie inhabitants. Banbury did not wholly 
escape its ravages ; but the mortality was by no means so 
alarming in amount as it had been on previous occasions. In 
1624, lord Saye and Sele was created a viscount, and another 
general election took place, when Sir Erasmus Dryden of 
Cannon's Ashby, nearly related to the Cope family, and grands 
father of the eminent poet of the name, was returned as 
Banbury's representative. Parliament sat from the 19th of 
February to the 29th of May. In the early part of 1625, the 
king was attacked with tertian ague, and on the 27th of 
March, he paid the last debt of nature, having reigned over 
England for twenty-two years. It may have been noticed 
that a spirit of distrust and disaffection had already begun to 
spring up between the king and parliament — a spirit which iu 
the succeeding reign led to so fearful an amount of human 
carnage, and brought a monarch's head to the block. 



CHAPTER X. 

Cj&atUs H. Begins to W^d^xt. 

The Earldom of Banbury. — Proceedings in Parliament, — The Great Fire. 
— The Soldiers and Civilians. — The Offenders before the House of Lords.— 
" Tonnage and Poundage."— The Scotch Covenanters.— Conferences of the 
Opposition Leaders, — Public Events. — The Arming.— Lord Brook's Cannon 
brought back to Banbury and eventually given up. 

AEON Knollys of the Greys, high steward of Banbury, 
had been created viscount Wallingford in 1616, and in 
the first year of the reign of king Charles I. he was raised to 



116 THE HISTOEY 

tlie third step in the peerage under the title of earl of Ban- 
Lurj. He was, indeed, the first and the last undisputed 
possessor of that honour; for although at his death iu 1632, 
Ms wife left a child named Nicholas, yet the unseemly haste 
with which she contracted a second matrimonial alliance with 
lord Yaux, coupled with the fact that the youth was brought 
up by the new husband as his own son, and even for some 
time went by his name, gave good ground for the opinion 
tbat there was more of the blood of Vaux than of KnoUys in 
his veins. In the year 1660, this Nicholas — the son of 
somebody — took his seat in the house of peers as earl of 
Banbury; but an objection was raised to his legitimacy, and 
the question was referred to a committee, which eventually 
reported in his favour. A bill was subsequently brought into 
the house declaring him illegitimate ; but in consequence of 
the advanced period of the session, it dropped through without 
becoming law. But the scandal referred to was so currently 
credited, and the feeling of the house so decidedly against him, 
that after one or two unsuccessful efforts, the claim to the title 
was quietly relinquished. On the death of this Nicholas, his 
son Charles also memorialised the house in vain for a call to 
the aristocratic chamber ; but when tried for his life, he was 
more successful in the court of King's Bench, for he carried 
his objection to its jurisdiction, and as earl of Banbury de- 
manded to be tried by his peers. 

Parliament was summoned for the 7th of May, 1625, but 
did not meet until the 18th of June, when the Hon. James 
Kennes, eldest son of lord Saye and Sele, took his seat as 
representative for the borough. That house of commons 



DP BANBTTEY. Il7 

numbered among its members many of tlie greatest men of 
the age— men who were determined to secure the liberties of 
the people by firmer bonds and better-defined limits than the 
constitution had hitherto laid down. They came to the 
resolution of granting no supplies, without equivalent con- 
cessions to the popular demands. Although this country was 
at war with Spain, then the richest monarchy in Europe, all 
that was granted for the whole year's expence, in the shape of 
taxes, amounted to £113,000. On the appearance of the 
plague in London, the legislature was removed to Oxford, 
when the estimated expence for all departments of state was 
laid before the commons, and although the government only 
asked for £1,200,000, the house refused to grant more than 
the sum already voted, and Charles at once dissolved parliament. 
In Tebruary, 1626, a new house of commons was summoned, 
and the choice of the corporation seems to have fallen on Mr. 
Chambers of Williamscot, who was then a member of their 
own body. Yery limited supplies were voted by this parlia- 
ment also ; and although the vote took place at the com- 
mencement of the session, yet the passing of the bill into a 
law was reserved until the king should redress their grievances. 
The duke of Buckingham, the prime minister, was impeached ; 
and though the result was not very satisfactory to either side, 
the enquiry lasted for about three months. An attack was 
made by the house upon his majesty's prerogative of levying 
tonnage and ])oundage without the sanction of the commons — 
an interference which Charles so deeply resented as to induce 
him at once to dissolve parliament, although the supplies 
already mentioned had not been formally granted. The king 



118 THE HISTORY 

now demanded these subsidies from his subjects as " a loan/'" 
lie imposed other taxation in the form of " ship-monej ;" he 
received large sums from his Eoman catholic subjects, on his 
consenting to dispense with the penal enactments against their 
persons and property, and allow them to worship God in their 
own way. A demand of £100,000, as a loan from the city of 
London, was met with an abrupt and peremptory refusal. 
Many persons who would not comply with the unconstitutional 
exactions then in force, were thrown into prison ; and as the 
first nucleus of a standing army was at that time being formed, 
the troops were billetted upon such private citizens as had 
rendered themselves in any way obnoxious to the court. It 
was not to be expected that a place so famed for its puritanic 
principles, as Banbury undoubtedly was, would be allowed to 
escape an infliction like this ; and the sequel will show that a 
captain^s company of foot soldiers were quartered on the inhab- 
itants of the town. 

The third parliament of this reign was summoned to meet 
on the 17th of March, 1628, and John Crewe, Esq., of 
Steane, who had previously been member for Brackley, was 
chosen as the new representative for Banbury. But between the 
day of election and the assembling of the house, a dire calamity 
befel the town. On the forenoon of Sunday the 2nd of March, 
through the carelessness of a female servant, an alarming con- 
flagration broke out in a malt-house in West-Street, then 
called Sugarford bar, outside the gate which stood where " the 
Shades" now cross the street. The numerous congregation 
which usually assembled in the parish church was Ihen met 
for public worship, and the Eev. William Whateley, vicar, was 



OP BANBURY. Il9 

engaged in the celebration of that sacred ordinance which 
was instituted to commemorate a Saviour's love, when the 
terrific crj of " fire ! fire !" came riding on the wing of the 
fierce north-west. The panic-stricken worshippers rush from 
the temple ; but it is only to witness the forked tongue of the 
destroyer shooting up as if in play from the rapidly-made 
wreck of many a happy home. The spectators were at first 
paralysed by the magnitude of the impending and obviously 
inevitable calamity, and when they did rouse themselves to 
exertion, their efforts were inadequate to check the progress 
of the fiery tide. 

Both West street and South Bar street are now blazing from 
end to end j whilst as if determined to sport with the feelings 
of the homeless, the fury of the gale inc reases to a tempest. 
Most of the buildings were constructed of timber, and nearly 
all of them were covered with thatch, which inflammable 
materials had been so dried by the wind as to serve as ready 
fuel to the flame. Calthorpe lane next falls under the influence 
of the destroying element ; and although the houses in that 
locahty were not then so thick upon the ground as they now 
" are, yet they form convenient connecting links to convey the 
work of devastation onwards. Scalding lane, or Eish street, 
is next invested with a mantle of fire, whilst the terror-stricken 
inhabitants look helplessly on, as their doomed habitations 
are devoted to destruction. Crash after crash, the crumbling 
tenements fall in, and the volumes of sparks and burning 
flakes, carried onwards by the wing of the gale, communicate 
the contagion to the Coal bar in Broad street. Here the 
course of the destroyer seems to have been stayed, apparently 



120 THE HISTOHY 

from mere lack of material whereon to expend its unabated 
force. 

In four short hours, one third of the town lay in smoking 
ruins, and between five and six hundred persons were deprived 
of that endearing word — a home. Upwards of one hundred 
dwelling-houses were consumed, twenty malt-kilns and 
granaries laid waste, whilst the furniture, malt, and grain 
thus unhappily destroyed was estimated to exceed £20,000. 
On the following Tuesday, Mr. Whateley again mounted the 
pulpit, and from the text " Sin no more !" he gave his hearers 
an energetic address, which sounds wonderfully like a modern 
teetotal oration : — " Think of the place," says he, " where the 
burning did begin ! at a kiln — a malt forge — the proper 
instrument of making that thing which is the next and im- 
mediate worker of drunkenness — that huge sin — that fertile, 
broody, big-bellied sin, which is apt to take the forms of all 
other sins. The fire began in a kiln; it consumed twenty 
others ; it left no malt-kiln standing that was within its walk; 
it leaped from one side of the street to the other to fetch in 
kilns ; it spared none that it came near, whilst it spoiled more 
malt than any other goods. Say then, brethren, is it not' 
plain that the Lord doth admonish you of that fault, of Avhicli 
the liquor made from malt is the common instrument, when 
He bore so hard against malt-kilns and malt." 

In 1631, the Sugarford bar was re-erected at the Shades, 
and to commemorate the great fire of 1628, a stone was placed 
above the centre of the arch over the carriage-way, on which 
was inscribed this pithy sentiment, " Except the Loed keep 
the city, the watchman watcheth but in vain." All the five 



OF BANBURY. 121 

bars, however, have long since disappeared, and the stone, with 
its inscription, may now be seen doing duty in the gable end 
of a cottage nigh the top of Calthorpe lane. 

The soldiers quartered in Banbury were somewhat straitened 
for accommodation, in consequence of the increased demand 
for lodgings on the part of those who were thus burned out of 
house and home ; and on this ground, a collision took place 
between the townsmen and military. The latter threatened to 
set fire to the remainder of the town, and to commit other acts 
of violence ; until, owing to the lukewarmness, or it may have 
been the fears of the magistrates, George Phillips the constable 
summoned the inhabitants to his aid, and resolved to do his duty 
at all hazards. At first, he got rather roughly handled ; but 
the townsmen coming to his assistance in considerable numbers, 
they managed at last to give a thorough thrashing to the men 
of war. Not satisfied with this, Phillips had the ringleaders 
up before the mayor and magistrates ; but the bench dismissed 
the charge on the ground that the justices had no jurisdiction, 
and that military men were amenable only to martial law. 
The constable, however, had powerful friends to back him, and 
being dis-satisfied with their worships' interpretation of the 
statutes, the subject was not allowed to rest here. It was 
brought before the house of lords on the 26th of March, by 
the interposition of the earl of Devon, and witnesses weie 
called to give evidence of the fray. On the 2nd of April, 
Mr. Hill the mayor, Mr. Knight the magistrate, captain 
Elveston the officer in command of the detachment, heutenaiit 
Ehynd, sergeant Branch, and three private soldiers, were all 
brought before the house iu the custody of the sergeant-at- 



l2S THE HISTORY 

arms. The evidence^ for and against^ was again gone into, 
and was followed by a warm discussion among their lordsliips; 
but it was eventually resolved that the whole of the offenders 
should be admonished at the bar. The mayor and magistrate 
were rebuked for not having punished the disturbers of the 
peace, when brought before them by the borough constable ; 
but as the house was of opinion that this denial of justice arose 
from their lack of knowledge in a disputed point of law, and 
as they had subsequently been both earnest and successful in 
preventing any furtlier breaches of the peace, they were ordered 
to be dismissed on the payment of the fees. The constable 
was requested to continue to do his duty temperately but firmly, 
so as to give no ground of complaint against him. The mem- 
bers of the military profession were enjoined to conduct them- 
selves more in accordance with the laws of the land, submitting 
themselves in all things to the civil rulers ; but as they had 
obviously been labouring under the mistake that their officers 
alone had the power of punishing them, the house had resolved 
Ihat their recent misconduct should be overlooked. 

In parliament, the grievances of the nation formed the chief 
topics of complaint: the billetting of soldiers on private families, 
the arbitrary imprisonment of unoffending citizens, the illegal 
exaction of forced loans or contributions, the " acts of power 
against law, and the judgments of lawyers against liberty" 
were sweepingly denounced from the opposition benches, and 
condemned by nearly all the members of the house of commons. 
The " petition of rights" passed both houses of parliament, 
and although evaded at first, it was afterwards ratified and 
confirmed by the king. The duties of tonnage and poundage 



OP BANBUEt. l23 

which had hitherto been granted for life to each reigning prince 
from the time of Henry Y., for the purpose of CDabling him 
to keep up a navy for the defence of the coasts, were now 
declared a violation of the liberties of the people and an 
infringement on the petition of rights. But this declaration 
was put a stop to by the unexpected arrival of the king, who 
forthwith prorogued the legislative assemblies. 

The prime minister, the duke of Buckingham, had fallen 
under the assassin^s knife, and the houses of parhament were 
again summoned to assemble on the 20tli of January, 1629» 
The debates on tonnage and poundage were resumed ; a 
remonstrance was framed which the Speaker refused to put ; 
ha was forced back into the chair and there he was held ; the 
remonstrance, branding those who levied tonnage and poundage 
as capital enemies of the commonwealth, and those who paid 
them as betrayers of England^s liberty, was then passed by 
acclammation. A violent rupture took place between the king 
and his " faithful commons ;" the parliament was dissolved, 
and several of its most refractory members thrown into prison. 
The contested tax of tonnage and poundage was now levied by 
the authority of the king alone ; and it appears by the records 
of the corporation of Banbury, that the law was ordered to 
take its course against four burgesses for refusing to pay their 
portion of assessment for the maintenance of the royal 
household. 

In 1632, on the death of the earl of Banbury, WilHamlord 
Saye and Sele was unanimously chosen high steward of the 
borough — a convincing proof that the patriotic principles 
which that nobleman was known to entertain were in perfect 



124j the history 

iinison with those held by the leading men in the town. In 
1634, ship-money was first exacted by the arbitrary power of 
the king alone, and although at first confined to the seaport 
towns, it was shortly afterwards extended to the whole king- 
dom. The county of Oxford Was assessed at one ship of 280 
tons and 112 men, the estimated expence of which was £3,500. 
Of this sum, Banbury was ordered to contribute £40, although 
it had not recovered from the effects of the recent conflagration; 
Oxford, £100; Chipping Norton, £30; and Woodstock, 
£20. It may also be interesting to know that Brackley, 
Daventry, and Stratford-on-Avon were each assessed for ship- 
money in £50. Mr. Prancis Andrew, mayor of Banbury, was 
deputed by the council to visit London, in the hope of obtain- 
ing the remission of a portion of the tax ; but tlie corporation 
records fail to inform us of the success of his mission, although 
they hand down the fact that he charged £1 6s. 8d. for the 
expences of his journey. 

In 1637, Hampden, Pym, Cromwell, and several other 
leaders of the parliamentary party, despairing of the final 
success of their cause, chartered eight ships to carry them and 
their goods to America ; but the short-sighted policy of the 
king induced him to issue a proclamation forbidding their 
departure. Yiscount Saye and lord Brook were also about to 
take their departure for the same distant region, and had 
actually founded the town of Saybrook in the state of Con- 
necticut, in the hope of enjoying that freedom abroad, of 
which the policy of their rulers deprived them at home ; but 
they were prevented doing so from the same cause. It were 
vain to speculate now as to what would have been the result, 



OF BANBURY. 125 

if the departure of the patriot band had been permitted ; but 
the probabilities are, that Charles would haye had an easy 
triumph over every opponent, and that the growing liberties 
of England would have met a fatal check. 

In the course of the same year, Hampden was cited to appear 
before the court of Exchequer, on the charge of having refused 
to pay the sum of twenty shillings, due as ship-money from 
his estate in the county of Bucks. The trial lasted for twelve 
days, and was conducted before the whole of the judges in the 
land. Of course, it was decided in favour of the crown, 
although four of the judges were of opinion that the defendant 
was justified in resisting the payment. But Hampden's object 
was accomplished ; the nation was aroused to the magnitude 
of the crisis ; the people saw that if the monarch was to be 
allowed to tax his subjects at will, there was an end to every 
thing like liberty in the country. 

An attempt to establish the liturgy in Scotland was accom- 
panied with such an outburst of tumultuous indignation that 
it was not deemed prudent to try it again. The bishops were 
attacked in the streets, and the presbyterian pulpits resounded 
with invective and declamation. Private interests united with 
a love of liberty in opposition to the sovereign's will, and the 
result was the combination of a whole people. In Eebruary, 
1638, Charles published a proclamation; but this was met 
with a counter-protestation, and "the solemn league and 
covenant" was formally adopted. A general assembly was 
convened in Glasgow, and by its decree, episcopacy in Scotland 
was declared to be abolished. To encounter the covenanters, 
the king marched an army of 20,000 men into Scotland^ in 



126 THE HISTORY 

the course of tlie following year ; but being far from certain 
that the English parliament would not side with those who 
were now in arms north of the Tweedy he agreed to a cessation 
of hostilities on rather humbling terms, and that too without 
provoking a contest. 

In 1640, after an interval of eleven years, a new parliament 
was summoned ; and Nathaniel Eiennes, the second son of 
lord Saye and Sele, was returned as member for Banbury. 
The king's object was to obtain supplies, wherewith he might 
be able to subdue the covenanters; but the house of com- 
mons resolved that redress of grievances should precede any 
vote of money, and the members were about to proceed with 
resolutions declaring the arbitrary collection of ship-money 
illegal, when the king abruptly dissolved them. Prior to the 
dissolution, however, a formal protestation was submitted to 
the peers, pledging them to hold no correspondence with the 
Scottish malcontents; but lords Saye and Brook refused to sub- 
scribe the required declaration, and were temporarily deprived 
of their liberty. "When the two houses broke up, Crewe, the 
chairman of the committee on religion, was required to give 
up to the ministry the petitions that had been referred to the 
body over which he had presided, and on his refusal to 
comply, he was consigned to the Tower, Not only the 
studies, but even the persons of the earl of Warwick and 
lord Brook were searched for treasonable papers, and that too 
before the expiration of their privileges as members of parlia- 
ment. Meanwhile, the army of the covenanters entered 
England — as they said, to lay their "humble petition" at his 
majesty's feet — and on being encountered by lord Conway at 



OF BANBURY. 127 

Newburn, the king's general of the horse was defeated, and 
his panic-stricken troops fled southward into Yorkshire. 

His majesty was now in very great perplexity, and after 
summoning a council of peers to meet him at York, no other 
course was left than to assemble a new parliament. This was 
accordingly done, and the legislature met on the 3rd of 
November, when the borough was again represented by Mr. 
Nathaniel Tiennes — his brother James having been returned 
for the county. But previous to the assembhng of this par- 
liament, numerous meetings had been held by the leaders of 
the opposition, and long had been their discussions, and 
earnest their dehberations, with regard to the pohcy that 
would be requisite for them to pursue. It was obvious to 
the least discerning that a crisis was at hand; and they who 
were most likely to be drawn into the vortex acted wisely in 
taking council together. Many were the conferences held in 
Broughton castle, and frequent were the assembhes of the 
patriots at Tawsley, the abode of the son-in-law of the daunt- 
less Hampden. 

At the meeting of parliament, the earl of Strafford and 
archbishop Laud were both impeached by the commons, on 
the charge of having attempted to subvert the constitution, 
by the introduction of arbitrary and unlimited authority. In 
1641, StrafPord was condemned and executed; a bill was 
passed declaring that parliament should not be dissolved, pro- 
rogued, or adjourned, without the approval of the majority; 
the courts of high commission and star chamber were abolished; 
the princess Mary was married to the prince of Orange— -an 
event which ultimately proved of great importance to the 



128 THE HISTORY 

nation at large; the king undertook a journey to Scotland to 
settle the affairs of that kingdom, Mr. Fiennes being one of 
the members of the house of commons deputed to attend him ; 
an insurrection broke out in Ireland, and many protestants 
were put to the sword ; the members of the house of commons 
spoke and voted in condemnation of the atrocities practised 
in Ireland, but they took no steps to put down the rebelh'on. 
In 164-2, the breach between the king and his people daily 
grew wider, and his majesty took the bold step of causing 
lord Kimbolton and five members of the house of commons to 
be accused of high treason. He even went in person to the 
house to secure them ; but they had received notice of his 
coming, and were not to be found, so that Charles had to take 
his departure as he came, with the ominous word " privilege" 
ringing in his ears. The members adjourned for several days, 
as if in danger of imminent and deadly peril. The house of 
commons restored to the lords-lieutenant of counties full powers 
of calling out and commanding the militia; but they took care to 
name those who were to fill the ofiice, and entrusted it to none 
but their own friends. Lord Saye and Sele was appointed for 
the county of Oxford, lord Spencer for Northamptonshire, and 
lord Brook for the county of Warwick. This proceeding on 
their part was doubtless an infringement upon the monarch's 
prerogative ; and to counterbalance this armed power, now 
at the disposal of the house of commons, his majesty issued 
his commission of array. The court removed to York, and 
thence king Charles issued his edicts. " His towns,'^ he said, 
"were taken from him, his ships, his arms, his money ; but 
there still remained to him a good cause and the hearts of his 



OP BANBURY. 129 

loyal subjects, which with God's blessing, he doubted not, 
would recover the rest." 

The commission of array for this district was confided to 
the earl of Northampton, and many of the loyal gentry and 
yeomen were assembled at Compton Winyates in arms for the 
king. Lord Brook obtained a grant from the commons of six 
pieces of cannon for the defence of Warwick castle, and they 
were brought to Banbury on the 29th of July. On the 
following morning, his lordship started with the artillery, 
accompanied by an escort of one hundred and fifty men ; but 
about a mile beyond Cropredy, they were stopped by the earl 
of Northampton at the head of a force nearly double in number 
to that of lord Brook, and about one half of the royalists were 
mounted. Each commander seems to have been unwilling to 
begin the affray, and the hostile parties stood confronting 
each other for some hours. Intelligence of the anticipated 
collision was brought back in haste to Banbury and Broughton 
■—prompt was the response of the armed townsmen. The 
troops of lord Brook were speedily reinforced, both from 
town and country, until he had close upon a thousand men 
under his command, but still he hesitated to open the 
flood-gates of strife. The trumpets sounded a parley ; the 
commanders met ; lord Northampton produced his commission 
of array and demanded the cannon in the name of the king. 
Lord Brook, on the other hand, referred him to the act of par- 
liament by which as lord-lieutenant he was invested with the 
supreme command in the county of Warwick, and pointed 
out to the earl the rapidly-increasing forces at his own dis- 
posal. It was eventually agreed that the cannon should be 



130 THE HISTORY 

returned to Banbury castle ; that lord Brook should give three 
days' notice before he offered to remove them ; and that the 
earl should give a similar intimation prior to any attempt at 
taking them by force. It was well for the cavaliers that these 
terms were come to, as their opponents had absolutely hem- 
med them in, and were only waiting the word to open fire. 

The castle was surrounded by a double moat, and was then 
under the command of the hon. John Piennes, third son of 
lord Saye and Sele. Hasty and rude fortifications were thrown 
up for the defence of the town, and reinforcements arrived 
from nearly all parts of the district. Adderbury alone with^ 
held its aid, lord Wilmot vowing that he would hang every 
man to the nearest tree who should dare to assist the rounds 
heads against their lawful prince. On the 6th of August, intel- 
ligence was received that the royalists were about to attack 
Northampton, and this drew off some fifteen hundred of its 
defenders from Banbury — the men being naturally anxious 
to look after the safety of their own homes. On Sunday the 
7th, the earl of Northampton arrived before the town, and 
planted three heavy pieces of ordnance upon Crouch hill. A 
captain Austen, to whom had been confided the erection of the 
temporary barricades at the outskirts of the town, and who 
whilst the enemy was afar, used to boast how he would serve 
them if they ventured within range of his trusty musketeers — 
now when confronted with positive danger, like most other 
braggarts, showed the " white feather,'' and counselled that 
they should all betake themselves within the shelter of the 
castle walls. The advice was followed, and then the valiant 
c^ptaii; — without even bidding good-bye to his brothers-in^ 



OP BANBURY. 181 

arms — was found to be missing on Monday morning, leaving 
the members of the garrison to shift for themselves. A flag of 
truce was sent in by the earl, demanding the cannon in the 
name of king Charles, and threatening in the event of a refusal 
to fire upon the town. Its defenders were dispirited by the 
desertion of captain Austen, upon whose services they had been 
taught to place implicit reliance ; they were intimidated by the 
rumours that had been industriously circulated, concerning 
the magnitude of the force now brought against them; they 
were disheartened by the tardiness shown in forwarding those 
succours which they had urgently desired ; they were awed by 
the threats held out to induce them to submit ; and in the 
absence of positive orders requiring them to resist, they agreed 
to deliver up the ordnance in dispute. 

With the artillery of which he had thus obtained possession 
the earl attempted the reduction of Warwick castle, but was 
foiled by the valour of the garrison. On .the 18th of August 
he returned to Banbury for the purpose of obtaining possession 
of the arms and ammunition that were still in the castle ; but 
colonel Piennes had now received both reinforcements and 
instructions, and gave his lordship such a warm reception, 
that he was compelled to withdraw his troops from the attack, 
and retire upon his mansion at Comptou Winyates. 

In the foregoing detail of the causes of difference between 
the king and the parliament, it may perhaps be thought that 
too much space has been devoted to the consideration of the 
party politics of the period ; but it must be borne m mind 
that the rupture exercised a mighty influence over the fortunes 
of the district, and that some of the leading incidents of those 



ISZ .THE HISTOEY 

exciting times transpired in the immediate vicinity of Banbury- 
It was, therefore, deemed necessary that the various causes of 
quarrel should be detailed at some little length, so that those 
who are not thoroughly read up in the history of the period 
may have a better understanding of the importance of the 
issues involved in the struggle. It may have been noticed 
that, like angry men generally, both parties were somewhat to 
blame — the king, for stubbornly adhering to those prerogatives 
of his exalted position which trenched so intolerably on the 
liberties of his subjects — the parliament, for encroaching on 
the prerogatives which in all monarchical governments are 
vested in the person of the reigning sovereign. The events, 
however, that have thus been detailed were only the preludes 
of greater incidents — the indistinct mutterings of the storm- 
eloud that had been gathering so long, but which was destined 
so speedily to burst, and spread havoc and desolation along 
its crimsoned tracks 




OF BANBUET. 13;3 



CHAPTER XI. 
5^0 i^anx STents, (B Israel 

The Royal Standard unfurled. — The Parliamentarians march to Worces- 
ter.— The Skirmish at the Bridge of Powick.— The subsequent Movements of 
the two Armies. — The view from Edge Hill. — The Formation and Positions 
of the adverse Hosts.— The Council of War.— The Advance.— THE BAT- 
TLE.— Lord Wilmot's Attack and Repulse.- Prince Rupert's Charge.— 
Advance of the Royal Centre.— Stapylton's Attack and Lord Lindsay's Fall- 
— Balfour's Division silences the Royal Artillery. — Capture of the Royal 
Standard.— The Attack on the King's Centre.— The Sovereign and his Guard. 
— A Narrow Escape. — Dr. Harvey's Indiflference. — The Standard retaken. — 
Hampden's Advance and Rupert's Danger. — The Retreat to the Hill. — The 
Night after the BattJe. — Firing the Beacon.— Killed, Wounded, and Prisoners. 
— Next Day's Counsels. — The Armies Retire in opposite Directions. 

ONDAY the 23rd of August, 1642, is an ever-memo- 
rable date in the annals of England ; for on that 
day, king Charles unfurled the royal standard at Nottingham, 
and appealed to the loyalty and attachment of his people. 
Now commenced that ever-shifting drama which leads the 
student of history to the contemplation of many a hard- 
fought field, where cavaliers and round-heads have long been 
quietly mouldering together — a drama in which some of the 
best and bravest of England's sons were the actors, and on 
which the curtain did not finally drop, until the last scene was 
played out on the fatal scafPold at Whitehall. Most of the 
nobles and landed gentry heartily espoused their sovereign's 
cause, and at their own expence, many of them armed and 



1S4' THE HISTORY 

equipped their tenants and retainers, from whose loyalty and 
courage great results were confidently anticipated. Shrews- 
bury was appointed the rendezvous of the royalists, and here 
the king soon found himself at the head of ten thousand men. 
Lord Clarendon calculates that the estates and revenues of one 
particular troop of his majesty's guards — the "show troop," 
as it was tauntingly styled — were equal to those of all the 
members who voted in both houses of parliament at the period 
now treated of. 

Nor were the leaders idle on the other side of the question. 
The principles of democracy had made considerable progress 
both in town and country, and when lord Saye and Sele 
commanded the militia of Oxfordshire to muster at Banbury, 
between eleven and twelve hundred men were found ranged 
under his banner. Besides these, his lordship, his two sons, 
and his grandson, each at his own expence raised and equip- 
ped a troop of horse, amounting in all to two hundred and 
fifty men. Lord Brook called out the "Warwickshire contingent 
of militia, and Hampden marshalled those of the county of 
Bucks. The principal magazines of arms were in possession 
of the adherents of parliament, which ultimately gave them 
a great advantage over the roplists; but as these stores 
were not served out for some little time, the implements of 
warfare were varied and picturesque at the commencement of 
the campaign, if they were not uniform and effective. 

Sir John Byron, with three troops of horse, was despatched 
by the king for the defence of Oxford ; but he was so hotly 
attacked at Brackley on the 281h of August, that he lost 
about one third of his men, all his baggage, and about £700 



OF BANBURt; 1-^5 

in plate and cash. On the 10th of September, intelligence 
was brought to Banbury by the scouts, that Sir John was 
again in motion for Worcester ; on which, horse and foot got 
under arms at once, accompanied by a goodly number of 
volunteers, and marched out the Chipping Norton road, for the 
purpose of intercepting the royalists at the Chapel of Heath. 
But Sir John had a vivid recollection of Brackley, and his 
orders being to effect a junction, he preferred taking a more 
circuitous route, and rested that night at Stowe-on-the-Wold. 
Whilst the adherents of the king were mustering at Shrews- 
bury, those of the parHament were rallying at Northampton. 
The earl of Essex had been appointed to the command of the 
puritan army — lord Lindsay being the general-in-chief of the 
royalists. Numerous reinforcements to the last named troops 
were being raised in Wales, and it was agreed by the leaders 
of the parliamentary forces that they should march upon 
Worcester, for the purpose of overawing the loyalty of the 
neighbouring principality. Considerable numbers of W^elsh- 
men were on their way to join the king at Shrewsbury, and on 
the 22nd of September, colonel Sands and captain Nathaniel 
Fiennes were ordered to the Bridge of Powick, for the 
purpose of preventing their effecting a junction. Here, how- 
ever, they fell in with another enemy, in the person of prince 
Eupert and his squadron of horse. The troops of the 
commonwealth were in the act of defiling from a lane and 
drawing up in fitting array, when they were charged by 
Rupert with headlong impetuosity. Colonel Sands was cut 
down at the head of his squadron, and the command of the 
shattered force devolved on captain Tiennes. Eupert had 



136 IHE HISTORY 

hastily re-formed his men after their first successful charge, 
and again, hke a whirlwind, he advanced to the attack. 
This second onset was too much for the forces of the 
parhamentj and although captain Tiennes bravely did his 
best to stem the torrent that was sweeping every thing before 
it, and shot one of Rupert's officers with his own hand, yet 
his men were now galloping in all directions but the right 
one, and their commander was among the last to spur his 
charger from the field. They were pursued for upwards of a 
mile, when the advanced guard of lord Essex poured in a 
volley that checked the pursuit, on which Eupert withdrew 
from the chase and retired upon Shrewsbury. 

King Charles was now at the head of fifteen thousand men, 
and on the 12th of October he broke up from the county town 
of Salop, with the intention of marching upon London. On 
the 16th he was at Kenilworth, and on the 21st at Southam, 
whilst his army lay in detachments between that town and 
Banbury. On the 22nd, he took up his quarters at Edgcote 
House, the seat of Mr. Chauncey, his troops being in bivouack 
between that village and Cropredy. Here a council of war 
was held, at which it was resolved that they should attack 
Banbury Castle on the following day. But the following day 
found them in other work. The two thunder-clouds were 
drawing nearer and nearer, and the first of those explosions 
which were to shake England to its centre was destined to 
take place upon that very day. 

The earl of Essex, finding that the king had turned his 
fiank and was already between him and the metropolis, hurried 
on^vard by steady marches, and on the night of the 22n(J 



OF BANBURY, 137 

encamped at Kineton. Eupert and his cavalry had taken up 
their quarters at Wormleighton, and thus acted at once as 
outpost and rear-guard to the royal army. Late at night, one 
of his videttes brought him intelligence of the near approach 
of the puritan forces, and getting his men under arms to pre- 
vent a surprise, he despatches a messenger to Edgcote with 
the news. The officers in command of divisions were imme- 
diately summoned to the royal presence, a short council of war 
was held after midnight, and it was there decided that battle 
should be offered on the following day. By early dawn, the 
cavaliers were in motion, and the roads through Cropredy, 
Mollington, and Warmington, were thronged with armed men 
hurrying to battle. 

The morning of Sunday the 23rd of October finds the fated 
monarch along with prince Eupert on the summit of the rising 
ground ascending so precipitously from the vale of the " red 
horse" and the valley of the Avon. Below him there is spread 
forth a landscape thoroughly English in its every feature. Tt 
presents to the eye of the spectator a wide expanse of fields, 
and hedge-rows, and scattered villages, where the modest 
church tower peeps forth from the foliage of the surrounding 
trees, and whence the silver sound of the church-going bell 
has summoned successive generations to the house of prayer. 
In the far north-east, there may be seen the three tapering 
spires of bustling Coventry, whilst the dim peaks of the distant 
Malverns may be discerned bounding the horizon on the left 
of tlie plain. The lovely valley of the Avon stretches far away 
on the right and left, from the hoary castle of Warwick, which 
lung of old with the clang of steel, to Evesham's ancient 



188 THE HISTORY 

abbey, where the monks of other days were duly observant of 
matin song and vespers. It embraces in its sweep the Shaks^ 
perian associations of the classic Stratford — that magic temple 
of the muses of which England is so proud, recalling the 
memory of her most gifted bard. Tlie visitor to Edge Hill 
may easily discern the spot where it stands, the spire of the 
collegiate church being clearly visible to the naked eye. The 
river itself may be seen winding and twisting along the out- 
spread plain, whilst its waters glisten like a silver cord in the 
mellowing rays of the autumn sun. This magnificent expanse 
of landscape may best be witnessed in all its glorious beauty 
from the elevated tower of the Round House, a well-patronised 
place of public entertainment, and one which forms the best 
centre from which the visitor can explore the interesting site 
of the events now to be described* 

There was one point in the landscape on which the gaze of 
king Charles was closely rivetted. That spot was Kineton— 
the village that may be observed at a short three miles distance 
to the northwards, where the trumpets of lord Essex are now 
sounding to arms. The appearance of Rupert's cavalry, on 
the brow of the hill, have given the first intimation to the 
parliamentary commander that the enemy are in his immediate 
vicinity, and promptly he draws np his troops to meet them. 
Battalion after battalion may be seen emerging from the village, 
each troop, squadron, and company steadily taking up its 
allotted ground. King Charles stands leaning against a stump 
on the hill side, a short way above the hamlet of Radway, the 
withered leaves of autumn thickly strewed around, and heaving 
a sigh, he says to a gentleman on his staff who had ventured 



OP BANBUKY. 139 

to ask the cause of his sadness, '' I never saw rebels in a body 
before/' It is, indeed, a sight well calculated to teach the 
monarch a most salutary lesson — a spectacle on which he 
cannot look without having reason to question the accuracy 
of his previous notions about " the divine right of kings,*' 
when he sees those earnest men forming so steadily, to peril 
their lives in defence of their liberties. 

The forces of the parliament number thirteen thousand men^ 
Hampden^s division of tliree thousand being a day's march in 
the rear, and consequently not included in tliat enumeration. 
The centre consists of the earl of Essex's own regiment of 
infantry, supported by lord Brook's militiamen from Warwick-^ 
shire in their purple uniforms, and the London red coats of 
colonel Holies forming the reserve at a short distance to the 
rear. The right wing is composed of three brigades of cavalry^ 
the van formed by the troops under the command of Sir 
William Balfour, the main body of the wing consisting of the 
life-guards of the general encased in mail, commanded by Sir 
Philip Stapylton as brigadier, together with the brigade of Sir 
John Meldrum, in which the Broughton horsemen in their 
blue uniforms take their orders from Nathaniel Fiennes. Here 
also are the troops of lords Grey and Willoughby of Parham, 
captains Draper, Hunt, and Hesslerig. These are covered by 
a small park of artillery, and flanked on the extreme right by 
three detached troops of horse under the command of colonel 
■Pielding. The space between the right wing and the centre 
is occupied by the infantry of Sir WilHam Constable, of which 
the Oxfordshire militia form the principal portion. The left 
wing consists of the main body of cavalry, under the command 



140 THE HISTORY 

©f Sir James Eamsay) supported by the infantry of lords 
Wharton and Mandeville. The intervening space between the 
left wing and centre is occupied by a regiment of foot led on 
by colonel Chumleigh, supported by that of colonel Charles 
Essex, whilst the grey coats of colonel Ballard form the reserve. 

"From battalion to battalion, from rank to rank, ride the 
earnest puritan diyines, enjoining the soldiers to acquit them- 
selves like men, and show to the world that they are worthy 
sons of gallant sires. They exhort them bravely " to fight for 
the faith once delivered to the saints/' to display their valour 
as the chosen champions of Jehovah's cause ; to " resist unto 
blood striving against sin/' to go up with joy "to Eamoth 
Oilead to battle ;" to wield unsparingly the conquering " sword 
of the LoED and of Gideon /' assuring them, at the same 
time, " that His hand is not weakened that it cannot smite, 
nor is His arm shortened that it cannot save." Ah, well may 
the king look on in sadness as he witnesses the defiling of 
that formidable array I 

The royalist army is drawn up in order along the brow of 
the eminence, as regiment after regiment arrives on the scene 
of action, the right wing resting upon Bullet-hill, the left upon 
the road by the Sun Rising inn, and the hamlet of Eadway 
forming the advanced post of the centre* His majesty's tent, 
with the royal banner displayed, is pitched a little to the left 
of the Eound House, and the king himself is said to have 
taken a hasty breakfast in one of the cottages of Radway, now 
occupied by his advanced guard. The centre of the royalist 
army consists of three brigades of infantry drawn up in cour 
tiguous dose columns of battalia, the brigade of foot guards 



OP BANBURt. 14l 

under the command of lord Willoughby, flanked on tlie right 
by general Euthven's division, and on the left by that of Sir 
Jacob Astley. Sir John Byron's troopers act as a reserve,^ 
covered with a body of Welsh recruits. Prince Eupert com-- 
mands the cavalry of which the right wing consists, and con- 
spicuous among others, here is the famous "show troop'' 
already alluded to. Colonel Washington protects the eastern 
flank of this division with a small body of regular cavalry and 
a detachment of dismounted dragoons. The left wing, which 
occupies the ground by the Sun Eising, is entrusted to lord 
Wilmot of Adderbury, consisting of two regiments of mounted 
troopers, covered by lord Carnarvon's division of pikemen and 
musketeers, and flanked by lord Digby's four troops of horse. 
It is past noon ere these formations of the forces are completed 
— the noon of that quiet English sabbath on which many a 
silent prayer has been offered up, by anxious hearts in unfor- 
gotten homes, for the safety of husband, brother, father, or son^ 
now fronting the foe in martial array* Yes, it is the first day 
of the week—the interval of rest — the sabbath of the Christian, 
that must now be broken in upon by cries of fierce contention 
»^that must now be desecrated by the perpetration of atrocities 
inseparable from war. 

The call passes along the line, " Generals of division, to Ms 
majesty's tent!" and straightway each commander repairs to the 
presence of his sovereign, where the question is debated what 
is next to be done. Lord Essex has halted his line of battle 
on the plain, and shows no disposition to commence the attack. 
l*he experience of lord Lindsay prompts him to suggest to the 
royal council; the prudent advice that they shall receive th© 



142 THE HISTORY 

enemy's onset in the strong position which they now occupy ; 
but the fiery Eupert is in favour of an immediate descent into 
the plain. The discussion waxes hot, and continues for some 
time, until a message is brought that the round-heads are 
again advancing. Then the eloquence or the influence of 
prince Eupert prevails, and the hasty conclusion is arrived at, 
that they shall leave their ground of vantage on the hill, and 
come to close quarters on equal terms upon the plain. Now 
it is that Charles mounts his prancing war-horse, and arrayed 
jn glittering armour rides along his lines, encouraging his men 
to deeds of daring : "Your king,'' says he, '^is in the midst 
of you ; he is your cause, your quarrel, and your captain ; come 
life, come death, he will bear you company." Now it is that 
good old Sir Jacob Astley kneels down at the head of his men 
and prays, "0 Loed, Thou knowest how busy T must be this 
day ; if I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me !" Then rising^ 
he adds in a cheering voice, " Now my boys, march on \" 

"Forward \" is the order from end to end of the line, and 
each heart beats high with anticipations of victory as the 
cohorts of the king descend the hill. A flash glances forth 
from the lines of the parliamentarians, and the round shot 
crashes into the hill-side between the descending ranks of the 
loyalists, 

"The game's begun;" says lord Wiiloughby, addressing 
Sir Edmund Yerney, the royal standard bearer ; " but we sliall 
find out who will crow loudest ere set of sun." 

"Possibly so," replied Sir Edmund, with a melancholy 
smile ; " but that is an hour which hundreds among us will 
liot live to see," 



OF BANBURY. 143 

Another thundering sound from the puritan artillery comes 
sweeping across the plain, preceded by the rush of hissing 
iron, suddenly cutting short the opening dialogue ; and it is 
no reflection on their manhood to say, that hundreds on both 
sides wished themselves away. "Let the cannon open in 
reply !" is the order given to the commandant of the royalist 
guns ; and in obedience to the mandate, volumes of smoke 
and flame are belched forth from throats of iron, whilst the 
artillerymen bend their eager eyes on the distance, in the 
direction of the spot where the missiles strike, to see if their 
guns have been accurately pointed. But Stapylton, at the 
head of the life-guards of lord Essex, is now in front of the 
king's left, and threatens by a bold manoevre to turn the flank, 
when Wilmot receives the order to check his advance. 
"Adderbury and king Charles ! forward my heroes ! charge V 
shouts Wilmot, as sabre in hand, he leads them on. The 
shock of the collision was tremendous, followed as it was by 
the fierce hand to hand struggle between Englishman and 
Englishman— 

" Then * spur and sword' is our battle-word, 

And we make their helmets ring". 
Shouting like madmen while we strike, 

' For God and for the king.' 
But, though they snuffle psalms, to give 

Those rebel knaves their due, 
When the roaring shot pours thick and hot, 

They are stalwart men and true." 

And here the "rebel knaves" have really the best of it ; for, 
after a keen contention, lord Wilmot's troops recoil before the 
iron onset; of the life-guards, and his force is thrown back 



144 THE HISTORY 

lieadlong on the centre. Sir Arthur Ashton attacks eololiel 
Fielding's three detached troops of horse, on the extreme right 
of the parliamentary line, and being supported by Sir John 
Byron with the reserve cavalry, who had been coming round 
by the Sun Eising inn as the easiest mode of descending to 
the plain, the small force opposed to them is soon put to the 
rout. Instead, however, of wheeling their squadrons upon 
Stapylton's rear, and thus reaping the full fruits of their 
temporary advantage, they are led away in pursuit of the 
small party of flying puritans, and the troops under their 
command are of no further service to their master's cause 
throughout the residue of this eventful day. 

On the royalist right, Eupert is steadily descending the hill 
' — as steadily is Sir James Eamsay advancing to meet him — 
when Sir Faithful Fortescue, who commands a squadron of the 
parliament horse, dashes forth from the ranks along with his 
lieutenant, flings from him the orange scarf, the colours of 
lord Essex and the symbol of his party, and followed by all 
his men, goes off at full gallop to join the royahsts on the 
charge. The regiment to which these men belonged had 
been professedly raised to aid in quelHng the Irish rebellion, 
and possibly their sympathies were in favour of the king ; but 
at all events, their desertion is fatal to the division with which 
they have served till now; for, with the eye of a hawk, 
Eupert observes the confusion occasioned by the incident, as 
well as the gap thus caused in the enemy's wing, and resolves 
bn the instant that they shall have no time to remedy either 
the one or the other. His men are formed in a triple line, 
and on they come at a steady gallop. Scarfs are waving. 



OF BJlNBURT. 145 

feathers flattering, the locks of their loved ones floating 
on the breeze; the horses are tossing their heads, playing 
with the rein, champing the bit, and plenteously bedewing 
the ground with snowy foam; the riders are terribly in 
earnest, carefully with their left hand guiding the bridle, the 
glittering sabre gleaming in their right. As a wave of the 
ocean, when heaving on high before the wing of the tempest, 
acquires greater impetus the further it rides along the bosom 
of the deep, so this living tide increases in volume, velocity, 
and power, as firmly and swiftly it approaches the foe. 

" Charge I" thunders prince Eupert, waving his sword 
around his head, full three lengths of his war-horse in front 
of his men ; " Charge V' shouts prince Maurice, who is en- 
trusted with the command of the second line ; and "Charge '/' 
is repeated by the gallant lord Bernard to whom is confided 
the leadership of the show troop. Fortescue's deserters fare 
but badly at the hands of their new friends, as twenty-eight 
of them fall in the headlong onset, ere the cavaliers can dis- 
tinguish their allies from their foes. But still the impetuous 
torrent rushes on, sweeping every thing before it in its resist- 
less course. The puritan line of battle is weakened, in con- 
sequence of its being in the act of extension to close up the 
opening caused by the recent instance of wholesale desertion, 
and its leader appears to have been momentarily bewildered, 
not knowing how far the disaffection has spread. The rushing 
wave of cavaliers bursts like a thunderbolt on that weakened, 
wavering front, and down go the round-heads, horse and man. 
Right into the puritan ranks the mighty hurricane sweeps on,, 
and the leading squadrons are absolutely annihilated. 



146 THE HISTORY 

" Close up the infantry ! forward the reserve \" shouts the 
parliamentary commander-in-chief, as he gallops towards the 
scene of irremediable disaster; "Close up your ranks, and 
keep out both friend and foe." But it is too late ! the 
scattered cavalry are inextricably mingled with the foot, and 
vain is every efPort of the lords Wharton and Mandeville to 
restore order in their broken battalia. Not only are these 
regiments in hopeless confusion, but the connecting links 
between the left wing and centre, tbe regiments of colonels 
Chumleigh and Charles Essex, are also thrown into disorder 
from the same cause. Colonel Ballard contrives to keep his 
reserve of grey-coats well in hand, and when the whirlwind 
has swept past, he occupies the ground thus summarily cleared 
of its defenders. Lord Brookes battalion of Warwickshire 
militia, and Holies' regiment of Cockney red-coats are wheeled 
up and fronted to the left by lord Essex in person, in order 
that they may successfully resist any attack that may be made 
on that unprotected flank of his centre. 

Where now is that " man of iron," who played his part so 
bravely on many a subsequent field ? Where is Cromwell and 
his hardy troop ? Where is the blade that was so oft deep- 
dyed with the blood of the foe ? Where the nervous arm that 
so frequently stemmed the surging tide of battle, and so often 
snatched victory from the very jaws of despair ? Cromwell was 
then but a young soldier, and has suffered much obloquy iu 
consequence of his absence from the field of Edge Hill. He 
was publicly charged by Holies with cowardice, perfidy, 
ambition, and hypocrisy ; but however much opinions may 
differ as to the three last items in the accusation, yet his 



OP BANBURY. 147 

personal courage was too often displayed, and tliat in circum- 
'Stances of extremest peril, to place the question of his bravery 
beyond cavil or doubt. A royalist writer of the times tells us 
■that he got high up into the steeple of a church — said to be 
that of Burton Dasset — and when he witnessed the rude repulse 
'of the cavalry, he was in such haste to be gone as to swing 
himself down by the bell-rope, instead of the more leisurely 
method of descending the stairs. The probability is, that 
Cromwell had, on the previous evening, been placed where he 
was on outpost duty ; that in the Lurry of the events of the 
morning, his commander had forgotten to recall him; and that 
his own notions of military discipline were too strict to allow 
him to leave his post without orders. 

• The whole left wing of the parliamentary army, horse and 
foot, skirmishers and supports, is now flying in confusion to 
the village of Kineton. Euperf s cavalry is in unsparing 
■ pursuit, and well may it be said of them, that 

" With crirason'd fetlock deep in blood, 
The fierce dragoon, through battle's iiood, 
Spurs his wild war-horse on." 

The state of things, in this part of the plain, may rather be 
said to resemble a carnage than a battle. In order to clear a 
way for their own escape, the despairing troopers of the parlia- 
ment ruthlessly cut down their own routed infantry ; whilst 
Euperfs cavaliers, slashing and thrusting at every fugitive 
they come up to, are ploughing their way through the rapidly- 
; thinning and panic-stricken crowd. It is at such moments 
L^$ these, that man casts behind him all the finer feelings of 



148 IHB HISTORY 

his uature^ and is transformed for the time into the resem- 
blance of a fiend. On they thunder, pursuers and pursued, 
leaving behind them a broad and bloody track to mark the 
course of that ghastly race from the Bullet-hill to the street 
of Kineton. Here, however, their course is stayed. The 
baggage waggons of the puritans present stronger attractions 
than are offered by the chance of a further pursuit, and the 
congenial work of plunder detains the royalist troopers from 
the place where they are soon right sorely wanted. But they 
are too busy just now to bestow a thought upon their struggl- 
ing comrades — too deeply engrossed with the appropriation of 
their neighbours'* goods to think for a moment of the further 
pursuit of a flying foe. 

It may be observed that, at the council of war held at noon, 
there was a difference of opinion between lord Lindsay and 
prince Eupert. It was something more; for it resulted 
in an absolute quarrel, and the veteran earl resigned the 
leading-staff of an army, the operations of which he was not 
allowed to direct. The command of the centre, to the opera- 
tions of which, the reader's attention has now to be called, 
consequently devolves on general Euthven, an officer of con- 
siderable continental experience. After resigning the command, 
lord Lindsay is to be found fighting on foot at the head of his 
own Lincolnshire regiment. Although a brave and gallant 
soldier, prince Eupert is certainly the most intractable of 
subalterns, and generally gave his nominal commanders a 
world of trouble. In the dashing onset already described, 
like Picton of later times, he had charged without orders ; 
and to take advantage of his success, Euthven is compelled to 



OF BANBUEY. 149 

advance the right of his centre as far as the ground wliere the 
farm houses of Thistleton and Battleton now stand. None of 
the land on tliis part of the plain was then enclosed, and a 
better spot for playing out the deadly game in which the 
combatants were occupied, need not have been desired by any 
commander. 

After having disposed of lord Wilmot and the left wing of 
the royalists, who were chased by Balfour's division and the 
Broughton cavalry far along the table land at the brow of the 
hill. Sir Philip Stapylton re-forms his Ironsides in a double 
line, and shouting his battle-cry " for God and his cause," he 
hurls them against the foot guards under lord Willoughby. 
The struggle is deadly but not long. The unbroken infantry 
are able to maintain their ground, the front ranks kneeling, 
the rear steadily delivering their fire, and the life guards of 
the lord-general recoil from the assault upon that marble wall 
of living men, leaving colonel Charles Essex dying behind 
them. Again both sides pour forth that iron storm which 
bids fair to pound every living object to the dust — each with- 
ering volley now " nearer, clearer, deadlier than before."" The 
two centres are within pistol shot, when the indomitable 
Stapylton renews the atta-k ; but on this occasion, the effort 
is not made with the hfe guards alone. The troops of lords 
Grey and "Willoughby of Parham, of ca])tains Draper, Hes- 
slerig, and Hunt, are ordered to the front to take part in the 
onset. The Lincolnshire regiment is the first to receive the 
force of the puritan shock, and its veteran commander— late 
the leader of the royal host — is stretched helpless on the field, 
mortally wounded in the thigh by a musket ball. His son 



150 THE HISTORY 

lord Willoughby, the officer in command of the foot guards 
of the king — it may be noticed that there is a lord Willoughby 
in each army — wheels up a wing of the red regiment to his 
father's rescue. But the effort of filial affection is in vain, and 
he too is a captive in the hands of the assailants. Having 
driven the Lincolnshire regiment from position, Stapylton 
directs his force upon the foot guards, now menaced from the 
rear with a new danger. 

Sir William Balfour and Nathaniel Eiennes, returning from 
their hasty pursuit of Wilmot, make a gallant dash at the 
royal artillery. The slender covering party left for the protec- 
tion of the guns is scattered at the first onset of the puritan 
horse, and as the gunners vainly endeavour to rally amid 
the ordnance, they are cut down by the sabres of the riders. 
Balfour's men have no materials for spikiug the cannon, nor 
is there time sufficient to effect their removal ; so the parlia* 
mentary leaders order the ropes and gearing to be cut, re-form 
their squadrons, and scour along the plain, for the purpose of 
attacking the king's foot guards in the rear, whilst Sir Philip 
Stapylton's division is hewing away at the front. This onset 
from all quarters is more than mortal man can endure, and 
the brave brigade of foot guards is efl'ectually doubled up. 
Lionel Copley makes a heroic dash at the royal standards- 
Sir Edmund Yerney defends it bravely. A hand of each 
grasps the flag-staff of the coveted prize, whilst the quivering 
steel is flashing in the other. In this single contest, Copley 
has the advantage, and after cutting down his antagonist, he 
gallops across the plain with the spoils of war, and presents 
the banner of his sovereign to the puritan commander, who 



CP BANBURY, 151 

gave it to Chambers his secretary, with strict injunctions to 
take the greatest care of it. But, meanwhile, the red regi- 
ment of the king's foot guards is effectually broken, nearly 
every man being killed or taken prisoner; 

Whilst matters are taking this turn on the left flank of the 
royal centre, movements are being effected on the right which, 
are far from favourable to the royal cause. Lord Brook's 
Warwickshire militia succeed in turning that flank of the 
king's troops, whilst the red-coats of colonel Holies and 
colonel Ballard's greys are steadily advancing to the attack in 
front. Hesslerig's dragoons, too, have galloped round by 
the rear of the puritan main body, and seem ready once more 
to pounce upon their prey. Tt is a gallant onset, and it is 
met right gallantly. Here is general Euthven the new 
commander of the royalists> and the struggle is waged hand 
to hand and man to man. Many a death-blow is given in the 
strife. There is no time now to prime or load j " pikemen, to 
the front !" " puritans, push home for God and liberty !" 
" cavaliers, strike stoutly for God and king Charles !" But 
slowly and sullenly the latter give ground — clubbing their 
muskets and shortening their pikes as they retire — falling 
back as it were inch by inch. In vain is the noblest blood 
of England freely poured forth in her sovereign's cause ; the 
men who have hitherto been held up to ridicule by the 
followers of the king now show that they too are Englishmen ; 
they give the best possible proof that they also are in earnest ; 
they demonstrate incontestably that to them their country's 
freedom is dearer by far than their own personal safety — her 
liberty more precious than life itself. 



153 THE HISTORY 

Mark yonder rising ground, a short qttarteT of a mile to the 
westward of Eadway church ! the mound is planted, so there 
will be no difficulty in recognising it as the spot selected by 
the king, from which to view the progress of the battle. 
Hour after hour, from that elevation, has he intently watched 
the changing features of the varying field. He has seen the 
whirlwind charge of prince Kupert sweeping every thing before 
it, leaving its caurse marked by the dying and the dead. He 
has witnessed the stern puritans rally again, and re-occupy 
the ground from which Eupert had driven them. He has 
observed the indomitable steadiness with which the main 
body of their army has advanced to the attack under the 
personal command of the general-in-chief. He has seen the 
fierce onset of fiery Balfour, and well has he noted the stubborn 
charges of Stapylton. Now he witnesses the tide of battle 
sweeping onward to the rear, in the direction of the place 
where he has taken his stand. He looks around him on his 
body-guard of gentlemen pensioners, and calling attention to 
the fact that there are still two regiments of infantry unbroken, 
he proposes with this small force to charge the nearly-victorious 
puritans, in the hope of retrieving the fortunes of the day. 
But the experience of those around him enables them to point 
out to his majesty the utter futility of this last hope, and the 
certain and inevitable loss which the attempt must entail upon 
his cause. They call his attention to the fact that these 
two regiments were now able to keep the enemy somewhat in 
check ; but if they were brought to close quarters, they must 
be borne down by the retiring tide, and then there would be 
no obstacle between the puritans and a complete victory. 



OV BANBURY. 153 

They even went the length of advising the king to withdraw 
from the field, and with such of the scattered horsemen as 
•could be collected at the moment, to retire upon Oxford, then 
as ever true to his interests. But to this counsel, he would 
not listen for a moment : — " No '/' says he, " I promised my 
brave men that I should live and die in their midst, and Charles 
Stuart will show them that he can keep his word." 

" Have at the tyrant !" cries Stapylton, after he had over- 
thrown the red regiment of foot guards ; " have at the tyrant ! 
yonder he is skulking in the rear. Have at the tvrant, and 
our country is free !" ^' Down with the tyrant \" resounds on 
all sides as the maddened cavalcade comes sweeping across the 
plain. But well for the king, there is a lion in the patli. 
Adam Hill of Spaldwick rallies two troops of the royalist horse, 
and with the cry, *' Por God and king Charles V' he throws 
himself between the hunter and his prey. The check is but 
momentary, for the gallant band is soon borne down by the 
superior numbers of the puritan horse ; but that mom(;nt is 
sufficient for the safety of the king, who canters back with the 
pensioners of his guard to his former position at the brow of 
the hill. 

There is one man unmoved amid the mighty turmoil. See 
him, as he sits upon the grass turning over the pages of a 
favourite author! Por him, the subtle truths of pi lilosophy 
have a greater charm than the dynasties of kings, or than rend- 
ing the sceptre from a monarch's grasp. Beside him are two 
boys, ten and twelve years of age, who are watching with in- 
terest the charging squadrons as they gallop to and fro, and 
commenting with child-like eagerness on the different phases 



154 THE HISTORY 

of the strife. That man is Dr. William Harvey, physician id 
the king and tutor of his boys, each of whom is destined in afteif 
days to be a king. They learned the lesson but indifferently 
which the scene before them was calculated to teach ; or the 
results would have been better both for their country and 
themselves. But whistling bullets and charging squadrons 
are things that will rouse even philosophy itself from the deep- 
est reverie it was ever plunged in ; and as the ear-piercing 
shouts of the strife draw nearer, and the "ping^' of the musket 
balls comes cheeping through the air, like the sound of a 
garden bee on a windy day. Dr. Harvey deems it prudent to 
shift his ground, and remove his pupils to a less dangerous 
locality. 

Captain Smith, belonging to the "show troop," seeing 
Chambers the general's secretary curvetting about the field 
and waving the captured standard around his head in triumph, 
selects two of his comrades in w^hom he could trust, and each 
of tliem having provided himself with one of the orange scarfs 
that had been cast off by the troopers of Sir Faithful Fortescue^i 
they venture themselves boldly amid the puritan host. Riding 
up to Chambers, Captain Smith addresses him in an authorita- 
tive tone, " That banner, sir, is too important a trust to be 
longer confided to the care of a mere penman, but the general 
is obliged to you for the attention you have bestowed on it ; 
give it to me!'' The secretary, nothing doubting that the 
person who thus addressed him was an officer of rank in the 
puritan army, unhesitatingly consigned to him the hard^woil 
trophy ; and the captain, having thus obtained possession of 
the coveted treasure, rode along unquestioned amid the con- 



OP BANBUEY. 155 

fasioa incidental to sucli a scene, until he came to an opening 
ia the lines, when putting spurs to his horse, he regained the 
hill amid a perfect hailstorm of puritan bullets. He was not 
long in finding an opportunity of restoring the rescued stand- 
ard to the king ; and that same evening, under its fluttering 
folds, he was dubbed the first knight-banneret on battle-field 
since the reign of Henry YIII. 

In Sir Walter Scott's novel of Old Mortality, one of the 
characters makes the observation that he had taken up the 
trade of soldiering at an end easy to learn — that of despoiling 
an enemy and appropriating his goods. This he designates 
by the graphic term " spool dering/' which, if early recollec-- 
tions do not deceive us, is a northern phrase having reference 
to plunder. Amid the waggons at Kineton, prince Eupert 
is busily engaged in this interesting and easily-acquired branch 
of military science, when intelligence is brought him that the 
fortunes of the day are going sorely against his uncle's cause. 
To withdraw his men from the congenial occupation in which 
they are engaged is, however, no easy task. Yainly the 
trumpets sound " to horse !" for discipline has not yet suc- 
ceeded in teaching these troopers that " the first duty of a 
soldier is obedience." Gorged with plunder, it is with the 
greatest difficulty that these marauders can be dragged from 
their prey. Bat a counsellor appears^ who is possessed of 
greater powers of persuasion than ever trumpeter could boast 
of, for the green coats from the Chiltern hills now arrive upon 
the scene, and self-defence calls on the plunderers to form. 

Hampden and his division have been toiling through heavy 
roads ever since early dawn, for the purpose of effecting a junc- 



15^ THE HISTOEY 

tion with his commander; but when the deep booming of the 
cannon announces unmistakeablj that the conflict is begun, he 
leaves two of his regiments to bring up the stores and heavy- 
guns, and pushes on with the two others and a few light field 
pieces, to take his part in the perils of the day. He meets the 
survivors of the scattered squadrons of the left wing, and 
succeeds in halting many of the runaways. He calls their 
attention to the fact that their comrades are still striving for 
the mastery of the field, and urges on them the necessity of 
returning to their duty. He gets them into something like 
order, and they go back under his command to the vicinity of 
Kineton. Thus Rupert is menaced with a double danger; 
for Hampden is in his front, and his retreat is well nigh cut off 
by the army of Essex. The more respectable portion of those 
under his command have been disgusted with the work of 
plunder in which their comrades are engaged, and have 
returned in small parties to where the action is going on. In 
nowise daunted, he again forms his diminished squadrons in 
order of battle, with the intention of renewing the charge. 
But the ground around the village, where he is now called on 
to act, is no longer an open plain, but is intersected in all 
directions with fences and hedge-rows, which form ready-made 
breast- works for Hampden's infantry. The field pieces are 
unlimbered and open fire, whilst the matchlock men from the 
fences keep up a spattering discharge, which empties a score 
or two of Eupert's saddles, and a few well-directed round shots 
complete his discomfiture. In order to join his comrades on 
the hill, it is necessary for Eupert and his cavahers to run the 
gauntlet of a considerable portion of the puritan army, whose 



OF BANBUET. 157 

cross fire exact a fearful toll as they pass. It is even said 
that the prince cast from him his hat and feather, that he 
might not furnish so conspicuous a mark to the sharp-shooters 
of the enemy ; and when he came bareheaded into the presence 
of the king, his majesty enquired in a tone somewhat bordering: 
on reproach, "Ah, Rupert, why have you been so long away V 
The prince replied that he had been led far from the field in 
pursuit of the fugitives ; but that he conld give an excellent 
account of the enemy's horse. ''Aye, by Jove,'' broke in Sir 
Philip Warwick, " but if your highness thinks proper, you can 
give us a much better account of their carts."' 

How many instances of unsurpassed bravery have been 
witnessed in the course of this eventual day ! It has already 
been stated how the royalist lord Willoughby attempted the 
rescue of his wounded father, and refusing to quit his side, 
was taken prisoner by the advancing puritans. The brave old 
man was tenderly removed, but he did not survive the shock, 
for he expired in the arms of his son, as he was being con- 
veyed to Warwick castle in a private carriage belonging to 
lord Essex. Then there was the "good lord ^Falkland,'' who at 
the imminent peril of his own life was assiduous in his exer- 
tions to care for the safety of those who had thrown away their 
arms, and were willing to surrender themselves prisoners of 
war. " How affecting is the story of the dying puritan 
soldier," to quote the words of a writer in the Westmmster 
Review, " who, with his last breath told how he had received 
his death-blow from his own brother, whom he had recognised 
in the royalist ranks. In vain did he try to turn the blow 
aside j the hand that had never been pressed but with br^^herly 



158 THE HISTORY 

affection now Mindly smote Lim down/' It is stated that as 
Eichard Baxter, the eminent puritan divine, was bringing the 
service to a close at Alcester church, nearly twenty miles off, 
some of the congregation heard the sound of the cannon borne 
along on the breeze, and the minister, having been made 
acquainted with the fact, enjoined all the men in the con- 
gregation to repair to the fight. Knowing that example was 
better than precept, he exchanges the " sword of the spirit'' 
for that of the flesh, and putting himself at their head, he 
arrived on the field the morning after the battle. 

That sabbath sun has sunk behind the western hills, and 
the shadows of evening are stealing over the scene. The 
army of the king is bivouacked along the hill, whilst that of 
the parliament retains its position on the field of battle. The 
shadows of evening deepen into night, and a keen, cold, cut- 
ting wind sweeps over both hill and plain. Here might be 
seen a soulless wretch, lantern in hand, rifling the dead; a 
father searching for his son, a brother for one whom in infancy 
he luved, a friend anxiously gazing in a stranger's face in his 
solicitude to find a missing friend. Even amid the enemy's 
slumbering sentries, worn out as they are with the fatigues of 
the day, the son of Sir Gervase Scroop may be observed gently 
gliding from one prostrate form to another, in earnest expect- 
ation of finding his father. It is, indeed, "a touching story !^' 
A quarrel of no ordinary kind had taken place between Sir 
Gervase and his son — the father having vowed in his anger 
that he would never look in kindness on that son's face again 
— and it was only at the council held at Edgcote, on the 
earnest soHcitation of king Charles himself, that the quarrel 



OF B ANBURY. 169 

was made up and the relatives reconciled. Throughout the 
dangers of that eventful day, side by side had they breasted 
the foe, until in one of Stapylton's terrific charges, they were 
separated by the crowd, and when the royal lines were re- 
formed in the evening at the brow of the hill. Sir Gervase 
Scroop was nowhere to be found. Thus it is that the son is 
now searching for his sire among the dying and the dead, and 
he finds him at last, but helpless and senseless from no fewer 
than sixteen gaping wounds. He had been cut down whilst 
bravely defending the royal banner, and his body reposes within 
three yards of the mortal remains of Sir Edmund Yerney. 
The youth places his hand on his father's heart, and finds 
s.ome warmth still lingering near the region of the fountain- 
head of life ; like ^neas of old, he contrives to get him upon 
his back, and carries him within the royal lines. Eestoratives 
are applied ; the wounded man is cared for Avith all the anxious 
solicitude that filial afi^ection could display ; and, ultimately, 
the son is made happy in the recovery of his father. 

It was a night long to be remembered b^ those who had 
done their best throughout the vicissitudes of that arduous 
day. No one knows the discomfort of sleeping on the ground, 
in the open air, during a cold frosty night in the mouth of 
October, except those who have tried the experiment; and 
-whoever may have done so once will not be very ready volun- 
tarily to submit to a second infliction, but for the rest of his 
life will be apt to regard sheets, blankets, and counterpanes, 
as among the most necessary contributors to human comfort. 
Few in either army had tasted food since the previous day, and 
•Ludlow tells us after passing the night in his cold steel coat. 



160 THE HISTORY 

when he obtained provisions on Monday evening, he could 
scarcely get his jaws to do their part of the work. What a 
weary night mnst have been spent by hundreds of wounded 
men who are lingering in agony on that fatal plain ! It is 
astonishing how, in moments like these, the mind reverts to 
the days of boyhood, the scenes of youth, and all the well- 
remembered sources of enjoyment in the sufferer's far-off home. 
Then the stern realities of his present condition come flash- 
ing across the mind, and he groans forth in anguish the deep 
bitterness of his heart. 

But let him turn his glance to the Dasset hills, and he will 
see the lurid light of the beacon shining forth amid the dark- 
ness of the night, spreading far and wide the anxiously- 
expected intelligence that the hostile troops have come into col- 
lision, and that the army of the parliament lay claim to the 
victory. The beacon-house is still standing on the north- 
western point of the range, measuring twenty feet in diameter 
at the base, and fifteen from the ground to the parapet. It 
communicated with two corresponding structures in the norths 
both of which were a little more than twenty miles distant, 
and also with a third to the southward, erected on a height 
looking down upon Ivinghoe. A party of parliamentary cav- 
alry, in obedience to orders received from the house of 
commons, kindle the fire on the roof of the Burton Dasset 
beacon-house, and at the distance of forty miles, it is 
seen dimly-twinkling from the Ivinghoe hills, whence it is 
transmitted by a kindred light to Harrow-on-the-Hill, and 
thence to expectant thousands in the anxious metropolis^ 
Thus, with fiery tongue, was the intelligence carried onward 



OF BANBUKY. 161 

from county to county, until England, Scotland, and Wales 
"vrere convulsed with the news. A general assembly was at 
once summoned at Edinburgh, to deliberate on the steps now 
to be taken ; and in London, great was the panic on the 
arrival of runaways from the field, announcing that the army 
of the parliament was totally routed. The alarm partially 
subsided on the receipt of authentic intelligence from the 
commanders ; but the fact could not be denied that king 
Charles and his army still lay between the metropolis and 
the forces of lord Essex. 

Day again dawned upon the field of battle, and the leaders 
on both sides once more drew up their troops in order for the 
fray. But the previous day's experience had taught them 
caution, and had shown them that they were confronting a 
foe not to be despised. The numbers of unburied dead, 
thickly-strewed as they were upon the blood-bespattered plain, 
preached prudence in more persuasive strains than ever dropped 
from the lips of eloquence. On the side of the king, lord 
Aubigny, Sir Edmund Yerney, and colonel Munro are stretched 
lifeless on the field, and the brave old lord Lindsay is also a 
corpse. Sir Nicholas Byron, Sir Gervase Scroop, Sir ^acob 
Astley, Sir George Strode, and colonel Gerard are too severely 
wounded to resume their duties. Lord Willoughby, Sir Edward 
Stradling, Sir Thomas Lunsford, and colonels Eodney and 
Vavasour are numbered among the prisoners in the hands of 
the puritans. On the other side, lord St. John and colonel 
Charles Essex are* slain, and Sir William Essex is a royal 
captive. About a thousand of each army are numbered with 
the dead, and many more among the wounded are hastening 



162 THE HISTOEY 

to the brink of that dread bourne, from which when onte 
crossed there is no return. 

A council of war was held by the leaders of the parliament 
army ; and as the whole of Hampden's division had now come 
up, most of the officers in command of brigades advised an 
immediate renewal of the onset. Hampden offered to head 
the attack, and pledged himself with his own fresh troops to 
turn the king's right, urging with all the eloquence of which 
he was master, the paramount importance of a decisive victory. 
Although the earl of Essex was dauntless as a lion in the hour 
of danger, yet he was timid and irresolute in the moment of 
success. He turned for counsel to the cautious Dalbier, who 
pointed out the naturally strong position now occupied by the 
royalist troops, as they might be seen drawn out along the 
brow of the hill, and the loss which must necessarily ensue 
from any attempt at storming so steep an ascent. He called 
attention to the state of their own army, many of the men 
being almost in a fainting condition for lack of food, and asked 
if there was the slightest probability of ultimate success in 
leading troops into action who were absolutely starving ? He 
sho^ved that if their present army should be defeated, they 
had no reserves on which to fall back, and in such a case, 
nothing could prevent the king from recovering the capital, a 
circumstance that would strike a death-blow to the pui'itan 
cause. He urged that by a flank movement and a circuitous 
route through a friendly district, they should still be able to 
prevent London from being taken, and woujd at the same time 
materially reinforce their shattered army. These counsels 
prevailed; and late in the afternoon, lord Essex commanded a 



OF BANBURY. 163 

retreat upon Warwick ; but before the retrograde movement 
commenced, they completed their weary task of burying the 
dead, with the assistance of some country labourers whom 
curiosity or patriotism had drawn to the field. The farm 
steadings of Battleton and Thistleton now mark the spot 
where the contest ragsd with greatest fierceness on the plain, 
and "the Big Grave" points out the place where the moulder- 
ing dust of bitter enemies has long slumbered so peacefully side 
by side. On Tuesday morning, the king also withdrew his army 
from the hill, and returned to his former quarters at Edgcote. 
Thus drops the scene on the first act of the drama, each of the 
contending parties laying claim to the victory in what can only 
be regarded now as a drawn battle. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

Itatjer an Unpleasant S^ime to ili&e m. 

Ghosts and Goblins. — Surrender of the Castles of Broughton and Banbury, 
— Skirmishes at Brackley and Bradoc Down. — The Puritans routed at 
Middleton Cheney. — The Death of Hanapden. — Surrender of Bristol. — Siege 
of Gloucester. — Battle of Newbury. — Actions in the North. — The Battle of 
Marston Moor. — The Skirmish at Cropredy Bridge. — Cleveland's Charge.— 
The Show Troop again. — Waller's Defeat.— Defence of the Bridge. — Separa- 
tion of the Combatants. 

•HE fears with which superstition inspired those who were 
subject to its powers, in days when ignorance clouded 
the mind, may form matter of amusement to us who live in a 
more inteUigent age; but these things were certainly no laugh- 



164 THE HISTOHY 

ing affair for those who were visited by the infliction. It 
would indeed have been a subject for our wonder^ if a scene 
so tragic as that which is faintly sketched forth in these pages, 
had been allowed to pass down into the dim vista of futurity 
without portentous visitations from the spirit world. Accord* 
ingly. in the course of the ensuing winter, the spectre-like 
phenomena of the Aurora Borealis are set down for ghostly 
armies fighting in the heavens, as if there had not been enough 
of bloodshed upon earth. The shepherds and herdsmen, who 
had first seen the shadowy illusions shooting athwart the sky, 
on reporting the w^ondrous tale to the villagers, appear to have 
been met with incredulity by the more intelligent among their 
neighbours, and take a not inappropriate method of revenge. 
A few nights afterwards, when the " northern hghts" are again 
glancing through the heavens, the discredited herdsmen visit 
the village, and by their groans and other unearthly noises, 
rouse the inhabitants from their tranquil slumbers. Then by 
an adroit mimicry of the sounds of war, they send the terrified 
disbelievers to shiver in corners, or to sweat with fear under 
the bed clothes. A magistrate named Wood, who had been 
among the most incredulous of the sceptics, is so thoroughly 
frightened that he bids good-bye to Edge Hill, and the clergy- 
man posts off to his majesty at Oxford with the news. 

On the morning of the 26th, or three days after the battle, 
the king breaks up from his encampment at Edgcote, and 
proceeds by way of Chacombe and Warkworth to Aynho 
.house, where he takes up his quarters until the 28th. Erom 
.the heights opposite Banbury, he despatches a pursuivant and 
flag of truce to summon the town and castle to surrender; 



OF BANBTJEY. 165 

"but to this message a refusal is returned. One division of the 
royalist army is then pushed on to Broughton castle, where 
wool packs are hung up against the walls to deaden the effects 
of the enemy^s shot ; but the place is so effectually commanded 
from the adjacent heights, that after a brief cannonade the 
castle is surrendered, the garrison having permission to depart 
to their homes. The arms are secured for the use of his 
majesty's forces, and the castle itself is given up to plunder. 
On the 27th, a strong body of the king's army is drawn up 
against Banbury castle, garrisoned at the time with eight 
hundred men. But in that garrison, his majesty has as many 
friends as foes; and as major Fairfax, the officer in command of 
the Peterborough regiment — of w^hich Sir Faithful Fortescue 
is lieutenant-colonel — is of the same way of thinking as 
his superior, it can scarcely be expected that any very deter- 
mined resistance would be attempted. Accordingly, on the 
firing of the first shot, the w'hite flag is hung out, and the 
garrison is allowed to depart on the same terms as that of 
Broughton. There are fifteen hundred stand of arms in the 
castle — a very acceptable addition to the royal stores, in the 
branch where the cavahers are most deficient. The usual 
amount of plundering takes place in the town, and when the 
mayor shows prince Rupert an agreement that had been 
signed by the king, to the effect that no spohation should be 
permitted, the prinee throws it down with the quiet remark, 
" My uncle knows little of what belongs to the wars." There 
is no doubt that the plundering is contrary to the king's wish 
— the town's -people having already suppKed the army witlr 
both cloth and provisions, on the promise of being paid for 



166 THE HISTOUT 

them when his majesty could do so — and it is on record that 
one man, who was taken in the act, paid the last penalty of 
martial law. After having conferred the command of Banbury 
castle on the earl of Northampton, the king moves on to 
Oxford, where he next fixes his head quarters. An effort to 
retake the castle, during the absence of the earl, is made by 
Sir John Norris, in the course of the following December ; 
but on hearing the news, his lordship hurries down from 
Oxford with a strong detachment of cavalry, and Sir John is 
compelled to beat a hasty retreat. 

The year 1643 is attended with a stirring train of incidents. 
In the month of January, Hampden repulses a night attack 
made on the force under his command, and chases the royalists 
till dawn of day. In the course of the same month, the church 
tower of Deddington having fallen, the bells were given up on 
the king's requisition, to be cast into cannon for the royal 
service, his majesty promising to restore them when they 
should again be required. On the 2nd of March, lord Brook 
takes possession of Lichfield ; but the royalists have entrenched 
themselves in St. Chad's cathedral, and as his lordship is 
surveying their position from a window in the town, he is shot 
dead through the eye by a random ball. On the 19th of the 
same month, the earl of Northampton encounters Sir John 
Cell at Hopton Heath in the neighbourhood of Stafford, and 
fighting with the greatest gallantry is slain, the command of 
the castle of Banbury devolving on his son. The fortress at 
Beading is surrendered to the parhamentary forces on the 27th 
of April, colonel Fielding promising to give up deserters, on 
condition that the rest of the garrison should be allowed to 



OF BANBUUT. 167 

depart in safety. Sir William Waller takes the towns of 
Ckicliester and Winchester on behalf of the parliament, defeats 
lord Herbert at Gloucester, thus raising the siege of that 
beleaguered city, whilst Hereford and Tewkesbury surrender 
to his arms. AtBradoc Down, the puritan governor of Ply- 
mouth is totally routed by the loyal Cornishmen, and the 
whole county of Cornwall acknowledges the undivided sway of 
the king. 

On the 6th of May, there is a skirmish in the town field at 
Middleton Cheney, between six and seven hundred puritans 
of the county, and a like number of the cavaliers under the 
command of the gallant young earl of Northampton. The ad- 
herents of the parliament are advancing to the succour of their 
oppressed brethren in Banbury, when they are unexpectedly 
assailed by the earl, their cavalry put to flight, fifty of them 
killed, and upwards of three hundred taken prisoners. The 
affair of Stratton, fought on the 16th of May, is also decided 
in the king's favour, major-general Chirley the puritan com- 
mander remaining a captive in the hands of lord Moliun. On 
the 5th of July, at Lansdown near Bath, Sir William Waller 
fights a drawn battle with prince Maurice ; but he is defeated 
on the 13th by lord Wilmot of Adderbury within a couple of 
miles of the town of Devizes. The patriot Hampden, prudent 
at the council table, eloquent in the senate, dauntless in the 
field, spurs his horse from a petty skirmish at Chalgrove to 
yield up his life in the greatest anguish. The queen has 
landed from Holland in Burlington Bay, and with three thou- 
sand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry, she meets her royal 
husband at Edge Hill, on the same day that lord Wilmot 



168 . THE HISTOEY 

routs the forces of Sir William Waller. The royal party 
sleep that night at Wroxton abbey, and on the next they 
rest at Woodstock. 

The city of Bristol, then next in importance to London, is 
defended by a garrison consisting of two thousand five hundred 
infantry and eight hundred cavalry under the command of the 
honourable Nathaniel Tiennes. Prince Eupert has effected a 
junction with the Cornish forces, and is now at the head of 
fifteen thousand men. The fortifications of the city are neither 
regular nor complete, and the prince resolves to take it bj 
storm. The assault begins on the 25th of July, the Cornish- 
men attacking the west side of the city in three divisions. 
The centre battalion has gained a footing on the ramparts, but 
is rudely repulsed by the valour of the garrison. On the 
prince's side, the attacking party led on by lord Grandison is 
gallantly beaten off, and its noble leader hurt to the death. 
A second division commanded by colonel Bellasis has no better 
fortune ; but a third, led on to the assault by colonel Washing- 
ton, succeeds in forcing a way through the curtain, and 
throws down the wall for the cavalry to enter. The streets of 
the suburbs are quickly cleared of defenders by the sabres of 
the horsemen ; but still it is only the suburbs that are gained. 
The city itself is yet uninjured, and seems capable of having 
offered a prolonged resistance. But the governor is of a 
different opinion, and Bristol is surrendered on condition that 
the garrison shall be allowed to march out with their arms and 
baggage, leaving their colours, cannon, and ammunition be- 
hind. For this instance of timidity under trust, Mr. Tiennes 
is tried by a court martial and condemned to die; but in 



OF BANBURY. 169 

consequence of previous services rendered bv b'm and his 
family to the state, the sentence is remitted by the commander 
in chief. 

The royalists next lay siege to Gloucester, which on the 
10th of August is summoned to surrender. The answer 
deserves to be recorded here : " The governor and magistrates 
will keep the city for the use of his majesty, and will obey the 
king^s commands, as signified to them by both houses of 
parliament." As may well be imagined, the puritans through- 
out the country are now in great consternation, and a strenuous 
effort is put forth for the relief of the beleaguered city. The 
army of lord Essex is reinforced, and he is ordered by the 
committee of public safety to aid governor Massey in his 
defence of Gloucester. He commences his march by Bedford, 
Beaconsfield, Brackley Heath, and Aynho, where he arrives on 
the 1st of September. There is some slight skirmishing at 
Deddington and Adderbury, but not of sufficient importance 
to impede the progress of the parliamentary general. Indeed, 
throughout the whole route, strong parties of the royalist 
horse hover upon his flanks, although they are unsuccessful in 
])reventing him from throwing reinforcements and supplies 
into the besieged city. On the 20th of September, Essex 
encounters the king's army at Newbury, where the struggle is 
severe but undecided, and is only put a stop to by the approach 
of night. On the king's side, the earls of Sunderland and 
Carnarvon fall ; but his majesty meets with a still heavier loss 
in the death of his secretary of state, viscount Falkland the 
noble and the good, who is laid low by a musket-shot received 
in the action, and whose ashes repose at Great Tew, where in 



170 THE HISTOUY 

happier days he was wont to reside. If every adviser of the 
unhappy Charles had been as prudent and patriotic as Lucius 
Carey the senator and statesman, the monarch might have 
gone down to the grave in peace. 

In the north, Sir Thomas Fairfax has defeated the royalists 
at Wakefield, and Cromwell has gained a decided success at 
Gainsborough, where the gallant Cavendish is slain. But both 
of these victories are more than compensated by the defeat of 
lord Fairfax at Atherton moor, after which the marquis of 
Newcastle lays siege to the stronghold of Kingston-upon-Hull. 
There is, however, yet another turn in the wheel of fortune, 
for the earl of Manchester, having effected a junction with 
Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax, gains a victory over the 
royahsts at Horn castle, and a vigorous sally on the part of the 
garrison compels the marquis to raise the siege of Hull. 

The Scottish parliament now declares its intention of aiding 
the puritans, and on the 22nd of February, 1644, an army 
under Leven crosses the Tyne from the frontiers of Scotland, 
and faces the marquis of Newcastle who is lying at Durham 
with fourteen thousand men. That nobleman, afraid of being 
enclosed between the armies of the Scotch and English generals, 
resolves upon retreat, and lords Fairfax and Leven lay siege 
to York. Eupert hurries from Cheshire to rescue the ancient 
city of the north, and joins his forces with those of Sir Charles 
Lucas and the marquis of Newcastle. The parliamentary and 
Scottish generals draw off from the siege, and form in order 
of battle upon Marston Moor. Fifty thousand Britons stand 
there in hostile array, and direful is the carnage, terrible the 
strife. The impetuosity of Eupert, who charges once more 



OF BANBURY. 171 

with the royalist riglit wing, is checked by the cool determina- 
tion of Cromwell ; and, amid a terrible storm of thunder and 
lightning, hail and rain, the headlong gallantry of the prince 
hurries him and his squadrons into irremediable defeat. The 
royalist horse give way ; the unsparing ironsides thunder on ; 
the foot regiments of the king nighest to the riglit wing are 
totally broken ; resolute to conquer or die, Newcastle's regi- 
ment alone firmly maintains its ground, and each hero falls on 
the spot where he fought. The parliamentary general Sir 
Thomas Fairfax and colonel Lambert are also successful 
against the royalist left wing ; but after they had swept past 
on their career of death. Sir Charles Lucas rallies his broken 
forces, and leads them on against the remaining cavalry of the 
puritans' right. The latter are shattered and thrown buck 
upon the infantry ; but Cromwell returns from the pursuit and 
soon retrieves the fortunes of the dav. Holdina^ well in hand 
the best disciplined forces in Europe, he ever and anon launches 
them upon the foe, and the royalists are swept from the field, 
leaving their whole trahi of artillery behind them. 

King Charles is meanwhile in the vicinity of Oxford ; whilst 
by the most strenuous exertions on the part of the parlia- 
mentary leaders, two powerful armies take the field against 
him. Their object is evidently to enclose him within the cir- 
cling folds of their forces ; but on the third of June, he breaks 
through the cordon and takes his way towards Worcester 
" the faithful city.'' Sir WilHam Waller, who commands one 
of these armies, receives orders to follow him, whilst the earl 
of Essex marches westward with the other. Waller is within 
two miles of the spot where the army of the king has been 



n-Z THE HISTORY 

encamped on the banks of the Severn, when he hears that his 
majesty is in full march upon Shrewsbury. The parliamentary 
general hastens thitherward, but learns that Charles has again 
wheeled in his course and is once more bending his way towards 
the district he had left. Having ascertained this, he too re- 
traces his steps, and on the 2Gth of June he encamps at Kine- 
ton, the king having then his head quarters in Brackley. Both 
armies have received considerable reinforcements, and on the 
28th are found facing each other from opposite banks of the 
Cherwell. The royal banner floats from Chacombe priory, 
denoting that hospitable mansion as the temporary resting- 
place of diaries, whilst the parliamentary general holds his 
court in the manor house at Hanwell. His majesty no longer 
declines the contest; for by advancing through Banbury, he 
endeavours to turn Waller's flank, and secure the vantage- 
ground of Crouch Hill. But the latter anticipates the design, 
and having a shorter distance to traverse, one of his divisions 
gains the hill as the forces of the king are defiling through 
the streets. His majesty then alters his plans, places his army 
in bivouac around the suburb of Grimsbury, on the eastern 
bank of the Cherwell, and on the following morning commences 
his march along the Daventry road. General Waller, afraid 
that his prey is again about to elude his grasp^ moves along 
the Southam road in a parallel hue with the king's troops, and 
takes up a position on the heights of Great Bourton. Thence 
he threatens the flank of the royalists, and for their protection, 
a couple of squadrons of dragoons are detached to guard the 
pass at the bridge of Cropredy. This small force is assailed 
by Waller with two thousand men, and is speedily put to the 



OP BANBURt. 173 

rout ; whilsfc anofclier thousand of tlie parliament cavalry cross 
by a ford at Slate mill, about a mile and a quarter southward 
from the bridge, for the purpose of attacking the king's troops 
in the rear. 

The division of his majesty's army under the command of 

the earl of Cleveland is now placed in considerable jeopardy. 

Waller's artillery open upon the infantry, and two strong 

bodies of cavalry oppose the return of any reinforcements from 

the main body. But Cleveland, who is as cool as he is brave, 

wheels up five regiments of horse to the left, and with these 

he makes a bold dash at the puritans. It is just such an 

onset as an enemy does not desire to have repeated, the first 

dose being generally sufficient. This division of Waller's 

troops are scattered by the shock, and gallop in confusion 

towards the bridge which they had crossed so recently, leaving 

■ eleven pieces of cannon in the enemy's hands. Nor does the 

division which had forded at the mill fare much better ; for 

the forces of which it consists are driven headlong from the 

field by four squadrons of cavalry under the command of the 

earl of Northampton. Lord Bernard launches the "show 

troop" at the puritan division drawn up to oppose the return 

of reinforcements to the rear, which, however, does not await 

the collision, but gallops off to the bridge at a much quicker 

rate than is consistent with good order. 

Hitherto Waller has been the assailant, but he must now 
act upon the defensive. His chosen troops have been defeated 
on the plain between the bridge of Cropredy and the village 
of Williamscot ; he therefore withdraws the main body of his 
army to his former ahgnment along the heights of Bourton, 



174} THE HISTORY 

leaving a strong division of infantry to maintain the bridge, 
and another battalion for the defence of the ford. The latter, 
however, is soon carried, many of the defenders being taken 
prisoners, and some slain. But the ford alone furnishes too 
intricate a pass for any considerable numbers of the royalists 
to cross, in the face of an enemy occupying a formidable 
position ; so the orders are, if possible, to carry the bridge 
by storm. The position is defended by the Tower Hamlets 
militia and the Kentish regiment, covered by a small battery 
of light field pieces, whose well-directed fire causes no small 
loss to the attacking columns. The approach of night com- 
pels the royalist commanders to withdraw from the assault, 
and the next day being Sunday, both parties rest upon their 
arms, facing each other from opposite banks of the river. On 
Sunday evening, the kiiig receives intelligence that the puritan 
general Brown is advancing from Buckingham with five thou- 
sand men ; and in order to avoid being enclosed between two 
armies, his majesty's force breaks up from its encampment by 
dawn of day on IMonday morning, and moves upon Dedding- 
ton by way of Aynho. But Waller was in no position to 
follow him ; for independent of five hundred killed or severely 
wounded in action, and seven hundred who were taken pris- 
oners, he lost upwards of a thousand men by desertion in the 
course of the Saturday and Sunday night. In fact, the spirit 
of his army seems to have been thoroughly broken, and he 
removes ^ith his shattered force to Northampton, 



OP BANBURY. 175 



CHAPTER XIII. 
f^eroic Wztzncz of Bantiurg Castle. 

Reasons for Attacking the Fortress. — The Leaguer. — Single Combat nigh 
the Causeway. — Commencement of the Siege. — The Cannonade. — Sallies of 
the Defenders. — Croaiwell in Banbury. — Mining Operations. — Forced Work 
no Choice. — Distress of the Garrison. — The Devastations of the Plague. — 
Second Battle of Newbury. — Raising the Siege. 

AVING thus disposed of the army mider Waller^s 
command, the king marched westward in quest of 
lord Essex ; and the puritan leaders in the counties of Oxford, 
Northampton, and Warwick, arrived at the conclusion that 
this would be a favourable opportunity for wresting the strong- 
hold at Banbury from the possession of the royal troops. It 
was found that in consequence of their being masters of this 
castle, the royalists were enabled to collect a large amount of 
revenue from the surrounding district ; and their opponents 
argued, that if they could obtain possession of the fortress, 
they would be straitening the enemy and strengthening 
themselves. Accordingly, on the 19th July, 1644, the forces 
of the parliament began to gather in the neighbourhood, 
although they do not appear to have commenced active opera- 
tions for the reduction of the castle, until after the lapse of 
rather more than a month. Separate divisions of cavalry, 
under different leaders, occupied the viUacges of Warkworth, 
Bodicote, Bourton, and Broughton, thus to some extent cutting 



176 I^HE HISTORY 

cfF the supplies of the defenders^ and preventing free commn* 
nication with those leaders of thsir party who were at the time 
on duty elsewhere. 

Sir William Compton, a brother of the earl of Northampton, 
commanded tiie garrison — a duty in which he was ably 
seconded by colonel Green, whose experience in military 
matters was found to be of great service in conducting the 
defence. Some ten days after the puritans had commenced 
their leaguer, captain Clarke approached the town from 
Warkworth, for the purpose of reconnoitering the outworks, 
accompanied by a troop of Northamptonshire horse. On their 
approach along the causeway, lieutenant Middleton summoned 
his troopers to arms, crossed the bridge with a like number of 
the royalist cavalry, aiid cjiallenged the captain to single com- 
bat. At it they went ; but both of their pistols missed fire, 
so cold steel had to decide the affray. Middleton seems to 
have been the better swordsman, and after a sharp tussle of 
about ten minutes, he sent the sabre of his rival spinning 
through the air. Not a moment was to be lost ; so seizing 
his pistol, the captain dashed it in the face of the lieutenant, 
and fairly turned tail not sparing his spurs. Middleton 
pursued, and gave him a touch of the sword point between 
his shoulders ; but three of the puritan troopers galloped up 
to their officer's assistance, and prevented the royalist from 
completing his victory. A trumpeter arrived at the castle in 
the course of the afternoon, with a message from captain 
Clarke, stating that it was by no orders of his that the soldiers 
had come to his assistance ; and added, what may fairly be 
doubted, that he would rather have died upon the spot than 



OF BANBURY. 177 

have broken faith. The ancient chronicler quaintly adds, 
" So, it was a dishonour to be rescued, but it was no disgrace 
to run away." On the 32nd of August, the royalist lieutenant 
again crossed the bridge, and drove back the parliamentary 
outposts to Warkworth ; but venturing too far in pursuit, he 
was shot through the head; whilst cornet Smith, the only 
other officer who accompanied the troop, was taken prisoner 
whilst endeavouring to withdraw his men from the hill. 

On the night of the 25th, the puritan troops entered the 
town, and the blockade was converted into a siege. They 
took up a position, and planted a few field-pieces in the church 
overnight; whilst shortly after day-break on the following 
morning, the leaders of the garrison determined that a sally 
should be made in the hope of dislodging them. The port- 
cullis was raised, the drawbridge lowered, and under the com- 
mand of colonel Green, a detachment from the garrison 
marched forth. Some of them took possession of the houses 
in Parson's street, from which they kept up a well sustained 
fire on the church, whilst their comrades advanced under cover 
of the garden walls, and were steadily approaching in skirmish- 
ing order. But the arrival of colonel Wheatham, the puritan 
governor of Northampton, with a battery of heavy guns, and 
strong reinforcements both of foot and horse, induced Sir 
WiUiam Compton to issue orders for the recall of liis men. 

On Tuesday the 27 th, colonel John Tiennes arrived, and 
took the command of the besieging forces — his first act being 
to send a trumpeter and flag of truce summoning the fortress 
to surrender, guaranteeing on his part that the garrison should 
be allowed to march out with the honours of war. The reply 



178 IHE HISTOET 

of Sir William Compton was characteristic of tlie man : " He 
kept the castle," he said, " for the king ; and so long as he 
had one man left alive to aid in its defence, they need not 
expect to have it surrendered/' On Wednesday, the besiegers 
opened fire, which they kept up with great spirit both on that 
and the following day. Nor were the defenders backward in 
returning the compliment; for with matchlock, drake, and 
petronel, they sorely annoyed the assailants, not only in the 
church, but also those who were at work upon the rising 
batteries in the market-place and at the north bar. binding 
that some houses in the immediate vicinity of the castle walls 
obstructed the view of the garrison, and afi'orded cover to the 
besiegers in their advance upon the outworks, colonel Green 
sallied forth on Thursday afternoon, with two hundred picked 
men, and by a judicious application of combustibles and fire, 
some thirty of these houses were speedily in a blaze. 

It must have been an exceedingly uncomfortable time for 
such of the inhabitants as remained in the town ; for although 
in those days, the engines of destruction were not worked with 
such rapidity or skilled precision as the modern science of 
slaughter has developed, nor the implements of carnage so 
deadly as those which the ingenuity of man has subsequently 
•invented, yet a grenade crashing through the roof of a civilian's 
house, and exploding in the room where his family were at 
dinner, was a circumstance the occurrence of which would 
scarcely be calculated to improve the appetite or aid the diges- 
tion. And beside the risk of having a man's brains knocked 
out by a stray cannon-ball in the day-time, or having his 
^lumbers broken in upon by the wild war-cries of a midnight 



OF BANBUEY. 179 

assault, an inhabitant of the town could scarcely say that his 
house was his own ; for, before the siege began, he had to 
provide for the comfort of swearing cavaliers, and was now 
compelled to find accommodation for praying paritans, of 
whom there were upwards of three thousand engaged in the 
leaguer. The garrison numbered only about four hundred 
men; but such was the strength of their position, and so 
assiduously did they work in repairing the damages which th6 
fortifications sustained, that the formidable force of the assail- 
ants was unable to effect a lodgment within the works. 

Still, the persistence with which the attack was conducted 
subjected the defenders to the severest straits, and they deemed 
it advisable that every hazard should be run in acquainting 
the royalist leaders with the difficulties of their position. 
Accordingly, two ragged lads were each entrusted wdth a half 
note to prince Eupert, urging on him the necessity of relieving 
the garrison, and the messengers were let down from the wall 
a little before day-break on the morning of the 31st. Both 
of them, however, fell into the hands of the puritans, and of 
course, that message never reached its destination. On Sun- 
day the first of September, the battery at the north bar having 
been nearly completed, two of the heavy guns mounted therein 
opened fire upon the west side of the castle, knocked down 
some of the chimneys, and made a trifling breach in the outer 
wall. On the same day, colonel Wheatham made an excursion 
with two troops of horse, as far as the village of Wolvercot 
near Oxford, at which place he understood that the duke of 
York was on a visit. But on his arrival at the church, he 
found the bird was flow^n, and had to rest satisfied with captur- 



180 THE HISTORY 

ing the prince's dwarf. He then rode over to Water Eaton, 
in the expectation of falling in with lord Lovelace ; but he 
only encountered that nobleman's lady, vrith whom he tried 
all his powers of persuasion, to induce her to disclose the 
whereabouts of her lord. Tor the purpose of terrifying her 
into a betrayal of the secret, he even carried her off a prisoner 
to Middletou Stoney ; but finding her resolutely bent on dis- 
closing nothing, he there set her ladyship at liberty, retaining 
as a prize her carriage and pair. 

On the 4th of September, the garrison moved most of 
their heavy guns to the south front of the castle, and opened 
a well-sustained fire upon the battery in the market-place. A 
considerable amount of damage was done to the works of the 
besiegers in that quarter, and on the night of the 5th whilst 
the working parties were busily engaged in repairing the 
injuries done here, a strong party of the besieged was mustered 
within the gates, and sallied forth to attack the battery by the 
north bar, erected on the site of the present national schools. 
They succeeded in getting within the breast works, and brought 
off nearly a score of prisoners. Having expended much 
ammunition and burst two of their heavy guns, the batteries 
of the besiegers were silent for a week, during which they 
employed themselves in repairing damages, and in erecting a 
new battery. On the 10th, they were reinforced by a detach- 
ment of lord Kimbolton's division, and on the 14th, by the 
arrival of some fresh troops from Northampton. The latter 
brought with them a number of colliers for the purpose of 
springing a mine under the castle ; but when these home-spun 
sappers fairly commenced operations, they came upon "springs" 



OF BANBURY. 181 

of another character, \vhich so flooded their works that all they 
could effect consisted in partially draining off the water from 
the outer moat. 

A portion of prince Eupert's army having arrived at Eves- 
ham, with the expressed intention of relieving the beleaguered 
garrison at Banbury, Cromwell was despatched thither with 
a strong division of lord Manchester's army, to cover the be- 
siegers against attacks from without. On his arrival, a council 
of war was held in the state-room of the Eein Deer inn, at 
which it was resolved to summon the garrison once more. 
Accordingly, on the 16th, a trumpeter was despatched with 
a flag of truce to the governor; but his reception was 
scarcely so friendly as to induce him voluntarily to repeat 
the visit. Sir William Compton informed him that the 
parliamentary commanders had already received the only an- 
swer which he would ever give ; and if another messenger 
should be sent to him on a like errand, he might perchance 
have to find his way back without his ears, if he were not 
hung like a dog from the castle walls. 

Finding all pacific overtures thus treated with contempt, 
preparations were made to take the place by storm ; and for 
three days and nights, the whole of the besiegers' batteries 
poured forth an unintermitting fire of shot and shell, so that 
by the evening of the 22nd, a practicable breach was effected 
in the western rampart, and it was resolved that the next 
morning should witness the assault. The storming parties 
were assembled behind battery and breastwork at an early 
hour, and after a heavy cannonade, which lasted from day- 
break until nine o'clock they advanced to the attack in five 



182 THE HISTOEY 

divisions. The leading sections were laden witli fascines — 
bundles of sticks and furze strongly tied up — which they 
threw into the outer moat at those points where the assault 
was to be made. They were followed by others with scaling- 
ladders, which, after passing across the moat on this precar- 
ious footing, they recklessly endeavoured to plant against the 
walls. But the breach in the western barrier appears to have 
been the principal point of attack — the others, in all likelihood 
having been merely feints made for the purpose of dividing the 
forces and distracting the attention of the garrison. Now 
comes the fierce struggle for life and death ! down go stones 
and beams of wood upon the heads of the assailants, who 
strain every nerve to clamber up the broken wall. Muskets 
and matchlocks are discharged in their very faces, and the 
reeling ranks recoil from the strife. Elsewhere, the ladders 
are thrown down with their maimed occupants ; and after an 
obstinate contest, the besiegers are driven off with considera- 
ble loss, having upwards of a hundred men killed in the attack 
and double that number returned as wounded. In the course 
of the evening, a flag of truce was sent to the castle, desiring 
permission to bury their dead — a request which the governor 
readily assented to, and which was carried into effect on the 
following day. 

But another enemy appeared which spared neither the as- 
sailants nor assailed. The plague — or more properly, a viru- 
lent typhoid fever — raged both in town and garrison, sweeping 
away great numbers on each side. Of the inhabitants, too, 
not a few fell victims to its pestilential influence, " and the 
mourners go about the streets.'^ On the ])ait of the garrison, 



OF BANBUET. l83 

the necessity for succour became still more urgent ; and the 
king, who was then lying at ISTewbury, despatched the earl of 
Northampton to his brother^s aid. By the assistance thus 
rendered to his followers in Banbury, the king's army was so 
weakened, that on the occasion of the second battle of New- 
bury, the earl of Manchester gained a decided advantage over 
his majesty's forces, and night alone prevented their total over- 
throw. The royal baggage and artillery were placed for safety 
in Dennington castle, and the king and his beaten army fell 
back upon Oxford. 

But two days before the second battle of Newbury was 
fought, lord Northampton arrived in Oxford with three regi- 
ments of horse, on his way to the relief of Banbury castle, 
and there joined his forces with those already in that city 
under the command of colonel Gage. On the 23rd of Octo- 
ber, the colonel had attempted in vain to succour the now des- 
titute garrison of Banbury, and for this purpose had approached 
within a mile or two of the town. His force consisted of con- 
siderable detachments from the garrisons of Oxford, Bostock 
house, and Wallingford ; but his object was rather to take the 
besiegers by surprise, and throw into the castle some portion 
of the supplies which he had brought with him for the purpose, 
than to attempt any serious operations against the assailants. 
Colonel Eiennes had intelligence of his approach, and met him 
on what is now the lawn in front of Bodicote house, where 
after a sharp skirmish, Gage was defeated, and the parHament- 
ary leader chased him and his troops to the very walls of Ox* 
ford, capturing some sixty horses and good store of plunder. 
It was, therefore, with no small pleasure that the royalist 



184j the history 

officer hailed the arrival of the earl of Northampton, in the 
hope that by his assistance he would be enabled to wipe away 
the stain that now clouded his shield. 

The puritan commander had not yet returned to Banbury, 
when the reinforced royalists set out in pursuit. In the course 
of the afternoon, the latter arrived at Deddington and Adder- 
bury, where they resolved to quarter for the night. A coun- 
cil of war was held by the officers of the besieging party, to 
whom reports had been brought in by the scouts, that not 
only were there strong detachments of the enemy^s troops at 
the villages named, but that divisions of the royal army were 
also advanced upon King's Sutton and Aynho, on the North- 
amptonshire side of the river, and by dawn on the following 
morning, an attack might be expected from overwhelming 
numbers. It was resolved by the council to raise the siege at 
once, and the heavy baggage and artillery were immediately 
sent off to Warwick, the troops being ordered to follow at five 
o'clock in the morning. The cavaby was drawn out upon 
Tarm Eield, under the command of colonel "Ferrer and majors 
Lidcote and Temple, for the purpose of covering the retreat of 
the infantry — about as dispiriting a service as a soldier can be 
engaged in. The advanced guard of the royalists emerged 
from Bodicote about seven in the morning; but a smart 
charge headed by major Temple drove that division back upon 
the main body. The earl of Northampton meanwhile deployed 
his troopers into the line, whilst his light field pieces kept 
pouring their round shot into the puritan squadrons. The 
alignment complete, on came the cavaliers at a hand gallop ; 
^nd the troopers of the parliament, knowing from the first that 



OT BANBUKY. 185 

it was a hopeless aflPair, wavered in tli^ir ranks, faced aboyt, 
and finally made off to the northward as fast as possible. 
They attempted, indeed, to make a stand a short way south 
from Hanwell ; but colonel "Webb, having made the circuit of 
Crouch hill with the Oxford horse, poured in upon their flanks, 
whilst lord Northampton with the main body charged them 
in front. The conflict was short, sharp, and decisive ; for 
colonel Ferrer fell mortally wounded, and his men once more 
sought safety in flight, nor again drew bridle till they were 
beyond Edge Hill. 

Colonel Gage's infantry, two squadrons of horse, and Sir 
William Compton with the garrison of the castle, set off in pur- 
suit of colonel Fiennes and the foot ; but the latter had got too 
good a start for the infantry to come up with them, and by 
prudently disposing his skirmishers behind the hedge-rows with 
which the country was intersected, the parliamentary leader 
was enabled to keep the royal horsemen at bay, and to withdraw 
his troops with but httle loss. On the king's side, lieut- 
colonel Smith and captains Butler and Brown were slain, 
whilst the earl of Brainford and colonel Webb were severely 
wounded. On the side of the parliament, colonel Ferrer was 
the only officer of note who fell, but captain Unitt and about 
eighty troopers were taken prisoners; whilst two hundred 
horses, a field piece, a waggon-load of arms, and a tolerable 
supply of ammunition became the prey of the conquerors. 

Thus ended the first siege of Banbury castle, on the 25th of 
October, 1644, after the town had been beleaguered for three 
months, and the fortress closely invested for tAvo. During the 
whole of this period, the garrison bravely held out, although 



186 THE HISTORY 

surrounded on all sides by a hostile population, and subjected 
'fo great privations for want of the commonest necessaries of 
life. Whatever views the reader may entertain with respect to 
the cause in which these men were engaged, he cannot with- 
hold his meed of approbation from the gallantry with which 
they maintained their position, amid the battering of cannon, 
the bursting of bombs, the midnight surprise, and the assault 
of the morning. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
^econtJ ^it^e d t^e Cagtie. 

Honouring the Brave. — The Kilsby Foray. — The Attack on Compton 
Winyates. — Fortifying the Castle. — Demoralization of the Royalists. — The 
Battle of Naseby. — Colonel Whalley lays siege to Banbury Castle. — His 
Progress in the Work. — The Parliamentarians are successful throughout the 
Country. — The King surrenders to the Scots, and the Castle to the Common- 
wealth. — Terms of Capitulation. 

►OE the services which he had rendered to the king's 
cause at Banbury, colonel Gage received the honour of 
knighthood at the hand of his majesty; Sir William Compton 
was thanked in royal orders; and there is no doubt that 
colonel Green would also have received some distinguished 
mark of the royal favour, but worn out by anxiety of mind 
and fatigue of body, exhausted nature gave way, and he was 
carried to his long home in Christmas week. On the other 
side, the widow of colonel Eerrer was voted a pension by 
parliament, and the troops of colonel Fiennes got a fortnight's 

pay- 



OF BANBURY. 187 

On the night of Thursday, the 9th of January^ 1643, Sir 
William Compton made a foray as far as Kilsby in North- 
amptonshire, the inhabitants having flatly refused to furnish 
the customary contributions to the royal cause. lie took with 
him a regiment of horse^ and brought two dozen of the 
villagers prisoners to Banbury. The foragers also- drove off 
a considerable number of horses, together with a great many 
head of cattle and sheep, besides carrying away every valuable 
article on which they could lay their hands.. Nor did Sir 
WiUiam give up his prisoners and his plunder until the Kilsby 
ladies paid down the sum of £300. 

Whilst the castle of Banbury, which had long been con- 
sidered the property of lord Saye and Sele, was thus so gallantly 
held out for the king, the fortified mansion af Compton 
Winyates, the family seat of the earl of Northampton, was 
garrisoned on behalf of the parliament with a strong detach- 
ment of troops under the command of major Purefoy. Sir 
William Compton, having ascertained from the scouts that 
three hundred of the men belonging to the garrison of Compton 
house were then absent upon special service, resolved on the 
hazardous attempt of taking the remainder by surprise, and if 
possible, of recovering his paternal home. On the 29th of 
January, shortly? after midnight, with about three hundred 
cavalry and two hundred infantry, he silently approached the 
outworks of the man&ion, and then gave orders for the assault 
to take place. The sentries were cut down at their posts,, 
the half-moon breastwork defending the draw-bridge wa» 
carried, the ropes were cut by which the bridge was raised, 
down came the structure with a thundering sound, and the 



188 THE HISTORY 

royalists wer^ soon in possession of the stables, the brewhouse, 
and other offices. 

The drums beat to arms, and each man in the garrison was 
quickly at his post, except about thirty who slept in the stable 
lofts and were consequently taken prisoners. About two 
hundred of the assailants had forced their way into the great 
court, where they were charged by the enemy in close order, 
and as their ranks were in some confusion, the puritans suc- 
ceeded in driving them back, upon the stables and barns. 
Another well directed charge on the part of the garrison 
recovered possession of the draw-bridge, which they succeeded 
in raising, and thus cut off the communication between the 
royalists within the walls and those who remained without. 
Thrice did Sir WilKam Compton attempt to regain the bridge 
and the adjoining outworks ; but thrice was he driven off with 
considerable loss. Inside the premises, all was in confusion ; 
for as the puritans recovered possession of the upper stories of 
the offices, the royalists set fire to the combustibles below, and 
as the flames spread rapidly, the assailants began to be inspired 
with fresh hopes. A trumpet from without summoned the 
garrison to surrender ; but the commandant ordered the bearer 
at his peril to be gone, and collecting all his forces, he once 
more charged those who had gained a footing in the offices, 
and succeeded in taking a good many prisoners, as well as in 
rescuing such of his own men as had been captured by the 
royalists at the beginning of the fray. The king's party lost 
about eighty in killed and wounded, whilst the parKamentairy 
loss was comparatively trifling, and Sir William Compton 
again retired upon his stronghold at Banbury. 



OP BAKBUET. 189 

The royalists immediately set about fortifying the castle, 
and as at the former siege, hunger had been their most for- 
midable enemy, they did not neglect on this occasion to lay in 
a good store of wholesome provender. A large supply of broad 
cloth was captured at Halford on the 6th of March, on its 
way from Gloucester to Warwick, and the seasonable prize 
was brought into Banbury by Sir Charles Compton, along with 
the seventy pack horses employed in its conveyance. Numerous 
working parties were daily employed in strengthening the forti- 
fications of the castle, and strong bulwarks were erected on 
its most vulnerable points. The ditches were deepened, 
bastions constructed, and every thing was done that could 
possibly add to the strength of the fortress. It is now that 
the incompetent commanders of the parliamentary armies drop 
off one by one, and their places are bestowed on men better 
quahfied for the stem task which they have taken in hand. 
It is now that the chivalry of the royalists is found ebbing 
away, and all that is virtuous and good in their cause is 
seen rapidly festering into corruption. The want of regular 
pay gives rise to a system of licence and plunder, wliich is 
carried to a pitch of great enormity, and renders the armies 
of the king fully as formidable to his friends as to his foes ; 
so that when the cavaliers meet the puritans on the field of 
Naseby, on the 14th of June, 1645, they only take up a 
position from which they are driven in absolute, utter, and 
irremediable defeat. 

During the remainder of that year, matters continued with 
but little change, either in the town or neighbourhood of 
Banbury. There were occasional skirmishes with varied sue- 



190 THE HISTOEY 

cess^ and the farmers were harassed with the foragers on both 
sides. Now it was the parHamentarians requiring stores, and 
now the royah'sts demanding suppHes. In the town itself, 
many houses had been burned or pulled down, and most of 
the peacefully-disposed inhabitants had taken their departure, 
finding neither peace nor quietness within its wails. But in 
the month of January, 1646, colonel Whalley arrived in Ban- 
bury with a strong division, bent on the reduction of the stub- 
born fortress, of which Sir William Compton still had the 
command. The first point to which colonel Whalley directed 
his attention, was the protection of his men against attacks 
from without. Tor this purpose, strong breastworks were 
thrown up commanding every entrance to the town, and a 
line of earthworks connected the whole. The garrison num- 
bered only three hundred men, whilst the assailants were at 
least four to one, so that little danger was dreaded from the 
sorties of the garrison. Captain Hooper, an engineer officer 
of some experience, marked out the trenches, and all ranks in 
the service of the parliament laboured most assiduously for the 
reduction of the place. Steadily did the four trenches pro- 
gress towards the castle, artillery being the only arm of the 
service in which the besiegers were deficient, and this want was 
promised soon to be supplied. 

In the course of a month, the parallels had been advanced 
to within pistol-shot of the works ; but Sir WilHam Compton 
was not the man to allow himself to be so closely cooped up 
without taking advantage of every opportunity which presented 
itself for annoying the assailants and retarding their progress. 
Accordingly, many were the sorties made by the garrison, and 



OF BANBUET. 191 

numerous were tlie surprises which they essayed ; but by the 
exercise of due vigilance on the part of the besiegers, these 
sallies were invariably repulsed. On the 8th of March, colonel 
Whalley summoned the garrison to surrender; but Sir William 
replied that he would never be so false to his king as to deliver 
up his trust to rebels, and declared that every officer and 
soldier in the garrison would rather lose their lives in defence 
of the castle than deliver it up without his majesty's command. 
The parliamentary officer, at a latter date, assured his gallant 
opponent that the fortunes of the king were sunk so low, that 
it would be impossible for him to send succours to Banbury, 
and further to prolong the defence would only be to imbrue 
their hands in their own blood. 

It would be but a thrice-told tale to relate, how defeat had 
followed upon the heels of defeat. How Fairfax retook 
Leicester and then hurried to the west, where he drove Goring 
from before the walls of Taunton, which was being reduced to 
great extremity. How prince Eupert surrendered Bristol 
to his arms, which so enraged the king that he recalled all his 
commissions, and sent him a passport to leave the kingdom. 
Charles was defeated at Chester; the Scots took Carlisle; Crom- 
well captured Devizes; Winchester capitulated; Dartmouth 
was taken by storm, and the surrender of Exeter completed the 
conquest of the west, Montrose was defeated by Leslie at 
Philiphaugh, and lord Astley taken prisoner at Stowe, when 
he said to the parliamentary commander, "you have now done 
your work and may go to play, unless you choose to fall out 
among yourselves." 

King Charles, finding his affairs thus desperate, determined 



192 THE HISTORY 

to surrender himself to tlie Scottish army, which was thea 
besieging Newark, and on the night of the 27 th of April, 
riding before a portmanteau as a gentleman's servant, he left 
Oxford in the company of Dr. Hudson and Mr. Ashburnham. 
His reception by his countrymen was not such as to flatter his 
vanity, for the presbyteriaii preachers insulted him to his face ; 
and one of them, after reproaching him with his misgovern- 
ment, directed the psalm to be sung : 

" Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, 
Thy wicked deeds to praise ?" 

On which the king stood up and requested the congregation 

to sing the psalm beginning with the words, 

" Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray j, 

For men would me devour." 

The good-natured congregation, sympathising with his majes- 
ty, sung the psalm which he requested, and left the preacher 
to mutter his maledictions to liimself. All hope of succour 
for the beleaguered garrison of Banbury was now at an end ; 
and accordingly on the 5th of May, fifteen weeks from the 
commencement of the siege, articles of capitulation were agreed 
to. These were as honourable to the besiegers as the besieged, 
and show the respect which brave men will ever entertain 
towards a gallant although fallen foe. Sir William Comp- 
ton the governor. Sir Spencer Compton his brother, together 
with the officer next in command, were to retain their arms, a 
servant and two horses each, and to be allowed to depart 
wherever they thought proper. Every captain was to retain 
his horse and sword, and all subalterns were to be privileged to 
wear their side arms, the privates to march out unarmed, but 



OP BANBUEY. l96 

all were to be allowed to keep their clothes and one half of 
their money, whilst every officer and private was to be 
furnished with a free pass to any place which he might select 
in England or Wales, together with free quarters on his 
route. Accommodation was to be provided in the town for 
the sick and wounded, who were still to be attended by their 
own surgeons ; and when sufficiently recovered, they were to 
be provided with like passports as the others. On these con- 
ditions, the castle with all its stores was rendered up on the 
morning of the 8th, the garrison marching out with the honours 
of war, and having piled their arms at the half-moon battery 
in front of the draw-bridge, they were cordially welcomed by 
those who had been so recently their bitter enemies. 

There were found in the fortress, ten or eleven pieces of 
cannon, four hundred stand of arms, nine sets of colours, a 
dozen barrels of gunpowder with a suitable supply of bullets 
and match, abundance of salt beef and biscuit, hundreds of 
quarters of wheat and malt, twenty live bullocks, and three- 
score sheep., It thus appears that the garrison was well pro- 
vided for a siege, and in all likelihood, colonel Whalley would 
not have gained possession of the stronghold without much 
risk and some loss. The news of the fall of Banbury castl& 
was welcomed by parliament with great joy. The sum of 
£100 was voted to colonel Whalley for conducting the siege^ 
and £30 to the messenger for bringing the news, whilst a day 
of thanksgiving was appointed in honour of the event, 



194 IHE HISTOEY 

CHAPTER XV. 
^n^agg lies tje J^eati tjat toears a Croton. 

Damage sustained by the Townsmen in the Siege. — The King given up to 
the Parliamentary Commissioners. — Demolition of the Castle. — Parish Matters. 
— The Commission at Newport. — Pride's Purge. — The King's Trial and 
j^xecution.— The Battles of Dunbar and Worcester. — The Levellers. — The 
Barebones Parliament. — Estimate of Royal Property in Banbury. — The 
Protectorate. — Cromwell and the Franchise. — Mr. Fiennes a Privy Councillor. 
— Richard Cromwell succeeds his Father.— -General Monk's Movements. — 
The Restoration. 

'AE is such a desperate game that even the winners 
are invariably losers ; and although, in that fearful 
domestic struggle of which we have sketched the outline, the 
cause that had been so ardently embraced by the majority 
of the inhabitants of Banbury was at length triumphant, yet 
at how a tremendous a cost had the victory been achieved I 
The town was depopulated and almost in ruins. Many of the 
houses had been destroyed for the purpose of strengthening the 
defences of the castle ; numbers of others had been removed 
in consequence of their having obstructed the view from the 
besiegers' batteries ; not a few had been pulled down, the 
materials having been required for constructing the extensive 
works erected for the reduction of the fortress ; whilst nearly 
all the houses in the town had suffered more or less from the 
continued cannonade of the two sieges. In such a state of 
things, private property invariably suffers, and owners op 
occupiers are but little regarded in the deadly struggle of the 




OF BANBURY. 195 

combatants for victory. To repair the damages, sequestered 
timber to the value of £300 was voted by parliament in the 
following July ; but as this was lying in a wood near Oxford, 
it was considered that the cost of conveyance would be a heavy 
sum, so the mayor and corporation were empowered to sell the 
timber in question, and with the purchase money to procure 
materials nearer home. 

The king was strictly guarded by the Scots, although 
treated with every form of outward respect. They required 
him to give orders to the garrisons which still held out for his 
cause to lay down their arms ; and as he was sensible that a 
prolonged resistance would be to little purpose, he yielded to 
the desire with a good grace. Oxford surrendered ; lord 
Ormond yielded up Dublin castle ; Newark was delivered over 
to the Scots ; the marquis of Montrose laid down his arms. 
The veteran marquis of Worcester, although eighty-four years 
of age, was the last who submitted to parliamentary authority, 
and until the following August, long after all other opposition 
had ceased, he refused to open the gates of Eaglan castle. 
Lengthened conferences took place between the parliamentary 
and Scottish leaders, the former claiming that the king's 
person should be delivered up to them — insisting that as he 
had surrendered in England, he could only be considered 
within the jurisdiction of that kingdom, and could not be dis- 
posed of by a foreign although friendly power. To their 
shame be it spoken, the northern commanders consented to 
deliver up their prize, on condition that the sum of £400,000, 
which was claimed as arrears of pay for their army, should be 
handed over from the treasury — one half of the sum to be 



190 THE HISTOEY 

paid down at once, and the remainder in two equal instalments. 
In 1647, according to the compact, the king was delivered up 
to the parliamentary commissioners, of whom John Crewe, 
Esq. M.P. for Brackley was one, and they removed him to 
Holdenby house in the county of Northampton, where he was 
seized by cornet Joyce on the Srd of June, and carried to the 
head quarters of the army. Some time afterwards, he was 
established in his palace at Hampton court, whence in con- 
sequence of threats of personal violence, he fled to the Isle of 
Wight, where he was again treated as a prisoner. 

"When Banbury castle was surrendered to the parliamentary 
troops, a committee of the house of commons was appointed 
for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not it would be for 
the public interest that the fortress should be dismantled ; and 
statements having been submitted to the committee, that 
during the civil wars, the stronghold in question had been a 
source of continued annoyance and severe oppression both to 
the inhabitants of the town and the residents in the neighbour- 
hood, they reported in 1648, that the public advantage required 
it to be demolished, and the materials might be applied to 
repairing or rebuilding the houses in the town. A resolution 
to that effect passed both houses of parliament ; and a vote 
was agreed to that the sum of £2000 should be given as a 
compensation to lord Saye and Sele for the damage that would 
thus be inflicted on his property. Of that sum, £800 was to 
be charged upon the sequestered estates of royalists in the 
county of Oxford, and £600 upon those in each of the counties 
of Northampton and Warwick. Pick-axe and gunpowder did 
their destructive work right speedily, and the soil that had 



OF BANBrHT. 197 

been watered with the blood of heroes came to be devoted to 
the ignoble purposes of a cabbage garden — the spot where 
warriors fought and fell has been converted into a coal 
wharf, echoing to the strokes of the lime-burner's hammer. 
All that is left of the stubborn fortress is its noble name, the 
two cottages in the gardens, and an ancient storehouse on the 
castle wharf. The vicarage house, the old gaol on the south 
side of the market place, the old workhouse in South Bar 
street, and several shops and dwelling-houses throughout the 
town, were all erected with the materials which the demolition 
of the castle placed at the disposal of the inhabitants. 

In 1647, an ordinance passed both houses of parliament, 
augmenting the temporalities of the vicarage by £48 a year, 
to be paid from a fund which had hitherto been reserved to 
the Bishop of Oxford from the impropriate rectory of Banbury, 
together with £2 a year from the rectory of Cropredy. The 
reason assigned was that the emoluments of the vicar were 
usually small in amount; and in consequence of the wide- 
spread distress occasioned by the civil war, of which the 
inhabitants had their full share, they were unable to contribute 
as formerly towards the temporal comforts of their spiritual 
pastor. In 1648, the Eev. Samuel Wells was inducted to the 
vicarage, a puritan divine of the presbyterian school, who 
subsequently published an able though ineffectual protest 
against the trial and execution of the king, in which he re- 
minded the rulers that when the ten tribes of Israel forsook 
their king, they also forgot their God, and their future lot as 
a nation was embittered with every temporal and spiritual 
calamity. 



198 THE HISTORY 

In the month of September, 1648, fifteen commissioners 
were sent to Newport in the Isle of Wight, furnished by 
parHament with full powers, and whose instructions were that, 
if possible, thej should come to some arrangement with the 
captive king. Five peers and ten commoners composed the 
commission, lord Saye and Sele being one of the former. For 
two long months did the discussion continue ; and although 
Charles was refused the assistance of counsel, yet by his own 
powers of reasoning alone, was he enabled to maintain his 
position against fifteen of the ablest statesmen of the age. Not 
only so, but he also succeeded in disarming at least some 
among their number of the bitter hostility with which they 
had hitherto regarded him. Civil commotions were meanwhile 
subdued, and the king was again seized by the commanders 
of the army, who caused him to be carried a close prisoner to 
Hurst castle. For this act of usurpation, Holies proposed in 
the house of commons that the generals should be proclaimed 
traitors to the state, and that view of the matter was ably 
supported by the honourable Nathaniel Fiennes, who still 
retained his seat as member for Banbury. The house of com- 
mons was then surrounded by the army ; yet after a three 
days* debate, they passed a resolution that the king's conces- 
sions at Newport formed a basis on which they might proceed 
to the settlement of the kingdom. This was followed next 
day by " colonel Pride's purge," when that officer beset every 
avenue leading to the house, expelled one hundred and sixty 
of the presbyterian members, and committed forty-one others 
to a brief imprisonment, among which latter number was the 
member for Banbury. The army was now the leading power 



OP BANBURY. 199 

in the state — only sixty or seventy members of the commons 
being left, for the enactment of laws or the transaction of 
business, a body termed in derision " the rump parliament/' 
On the 4th of January, 1649, this remnant of a legislature 
adopted an ordinance for the trial of the king; a lawyer named 
Bradshaw was appointed president of his judges, and Coke 
was employed to conduct the prosecution as solicitor for " the' 
people of England." 

Now transpired a spectacle unprecedented in the annals of 
any land. The chief magistrate of a mighty nation was 
arraigned as a traitor at the bar of his subjects. He was 
accused of misgovernment and breach of trust ; but he pro- 
tested against the authority of the court, and refused to submit 
to its jurisdiction. The members of the tribunal over-ruled 
the objection and declared themselves delegated by the people, 
the only legitimate source of power. Thrice was the scene 
repeated; and on the fourth day, the 27th of January, 
witnesses were examined to prove what every body knew, that 
the king had appeared in arms, and Charles I. was doomed to 
die. On the 30 th, he walked from the window of Whitehall 
to the scaffold ; with the words on his lips, '' I go from a 
corruptible to an incorruptible crown," he knelt down by the 
block ; with one blow of his axe, the masked executioner left 
the body a headless trunk. In what was called " the first year 
of freedom" the king's statue in the Exchange was thrown 
down, and on the pedestal was carved, " the tyrant departs — 
the last of the kings." 

The prince of Wales was immediately proclaimed in Scotland' 
under the title of Charles II. and he accordingly took shelter 



200 THE HISTOKY 

with the Scottish army, but with little more than the semblance 
of power. Cromwell, having reduced to obedience the dis- 
affected in Ireland, turned his arms against the Scots, whom 
he routed at Dunbar on the 3rd of September, 1650, and 
again at Worcester on that day twelvemonth. Meanwhile 
there had been some disturbances in Eanbury and other parts 
of Oxfordshire, occasioned by " the levellers," whose opinions 
of " possessing the land" had been widely diffused throughout 
the army of the commonwealth. A corporal Thompson took 
an active part in the propagation of these doctrines, and 
fixed his head quarters in Banbury, where he was defeated by 
colonel Eeynolds and his men dispersed. "With a few of his 
more zealous adherents, he fled to Burford, where he was 
joined by about four thousand others, holding similar opinions 
to his own. Here he was attacked and routed by Cromwell, 
and was subsequently shot in the neighbourhood of Welling- 
borough. 

Affairs of state were now carried on with a high hand by 
'' the rump ;" but being about to reduce the number of the 
army and thus weaken the power of its commanders, Cromwell 
dissolved the house on the 20th of April, 1653, thus anni- 
hilating a power " which had filled all Europe with the renown 
of its actions, and with astonishment at the extent of its 
crimes." He then summoned a new assembly consisting of a 
hundred and thirty -nine members, in whose appointment the 
voice of the people was not even pretended to be consulted, 
and from the name of one of its members, this body was 
denominated '^the Barebones parhament." It met on the 
4th of July, and shortly afterwards passed an act directing 



OF BANBURY. 201 

the sale of the royal property. A survey of the late king's 
possessions in Banbury was accordingly made, and the com- 
missioners enumerate fifteen houses or tenements in Sheep 
street, or that portion of High street between the White Lion 
^nd the cross, estimated at a yearly rental of £43 ; eight 
houses in South Bar street, of the annual value of £15 17s. ; 
and a piece of building land for two houses calculated at 20s. 
a year; property in the Cow Eair at £10 12s.; two houses in 
West Bar street at £2 each ; one in Broad street at £4 ; two 
shops in Butcher row, £3 ; a tenement in Church lane, £2 ; 
with other detached property of lesser value, making the whole 
of his late majesty's possessions in the borough amount to 
upwards of £90 a year. The only other act passed by the 
Barebones parliament was one which declared marriage a civil 
contract, to be performed by a civil magistrate, without the 
interposition of any clergyman ; and from the close of that 
year to the period of the restoration, banns of matrimony were 
published in Banbury market-place on Thursdays, instead of 
in the church as appointed by the rubric. 

This apology for a parliament tendered its resignation on 
the 12th of December; and shortly afterwards, by a decree 
of a council of officers, Cromwell was raised to the dignity of 
" protector of the commonwealth." A parliament was sum- 
moned to meet in September, 1654 ; but no writ was issued 
for the smaller boroughs, and consequently no representative 
was returned for Banbury either in this or the ensuing 
parliament. CromwelFs admirers represent him as an 
unswerving advocate of liberty; but although he abolished 
vassalage, he was certainly no friend to an " extension of the 



202 THE HISTOKY 

suffrage," for he admitted none to the exercise of the franchise 
unless possessed of an estate of £200. Nathaniel Fiennes was 
returned member for the county of Oxford, and rose high in 
the protector's favour — a circumstance which speaks volumes 
in his praise, for it is well known that Cromwell raised none to 
office, without their possessing the requisite degree of merit. 
Mr. Piennes was not only a member of the privy council, but 
also one of the lords commissioners entrusted with the great 
seal, and speaker of the upper house which the protector 
had established in imitation of the former house of lords. 
Office had also been offered to lord Saye and Sele; but he 
declined the honour, and retired to tlie isle of Lundy in the 
Bristol channel. The parhament was not found so submissive 
as Cromwell expected, and he dissolved it on the 22nd of 
January, 1655. 

A new house was summoned in the following year, and Mr, 
Fiennes was elected for the university of Oxford; but the 
majority was still far from pliant, and the protector set guards 
upon the doors, who were to permit none to enter the halls of 
the legislature except such as could produce a passport from 
the council. The members offered Cromwell the crown in 
1657, which after some hesitation he thought proper to refuse. 
In 1658, parliament was again dissolved, the members showing 
a desire of abridging the exorbitant powers of the protector. 
In the autumn of that year, he was attacked with tertian ague, 
and on the 3rd of September, the anniversary of the battles of 
Worcester and Dunbar, the iron head of Cromwell was laid 
low in the dust. 

His son Eichard now succeeded to the protectorate, and a 



OF BANBURY. 203 

new parliament was summoned to meet in January, 1659, in 
which Nathaniel Piennes, jun., son of the lord commissioner, 
was returned member for Banbury. The power of Eichard 
Cromwell was but brief in its duration; for on the 22nd of 
April, in consequence of a cabal among the officers of the 
army, he was induced to lay down an authority which he had 
not sufficient firmness to wield. The " rump parliament" was 
recalled by a council of general officers, and on the 13th of 
October was displaced again by the same military power. A 
committee of safety was appointed by the generals on the 26th, 
to be supplanted by the twice-expelled " rump'' in two months 
afterwards. On the 3rd of February, 1660, general Monk 
entered London with the army he had so successfully command- 
ed both in Ireland and Scotland, and was introduced to the 
miniature parliament on the 6th. The members who had been 
expelled by " Pride's purge" were restored on the 2 1 st, and 
by their authority a free house of commons was summoned, in 
which Sir Anthony Cope of HanweU was returned for Banbury, 
and which soon after its assembling on the 25th of April, voted 
for the restoration of the king with unanimity and zeal. 




204 THE HISTORY 

CHAPTER XYI. 

Srfje Itegtoration of tje ^imxi&. 

The Welcome Home.—TheExodusof 1662.— Whig and Tory. — Surrender 
of the Charters. — King James II. — The Lord Keeper. — Restoration of the 
Charters. — William and Mary. — A contested Election. — Queen Anne. — The 
few leading Events of her reign. 

•HE crowded thoroughfares of London rung with tumul- 
tuous applause, as on his majesty's birthday — the 29th 
of May — king Charles II. returned to the metropolis for the 
purpose of ascending the vacant throne. So hearty was tlie 
welcome, that he said it must have been his own fault that he 
had not sooner returned to take ])ossession, since every one 
was so zealous in promoting his restoration. He showed 
considerable judgment in the appointment of his ministers — 
Hyde earl of Clarendon being chancellor and premier, the duke 
of Ormond steward of the household, lord Saye privy seal, the 
earl of Manchester lord chamberlain, the earl of Southampton 
high treasurer, Sir Edward Nicholas secretary of state, and 
the Eev. Eichard Baxter as one of his most thorough- 
going chaplains, who did not fail to remind his royal master 
of his sins. An act of indemnity was passed which embraced 
within its scope all that had taken part in the civil war, except- 
ing those who had participated in the late king's execution. 
Of these, some were led forth to public execution, and the 
remainder dispersed in several prisons throughout the country. 
The army was disbanded, with the exception of a thousand 



OP BANBURY. 205 

cavalry and four thousand infantry, to take charge of a few- 
garrisons and form a body-guard for the king ; yet this small 
and unimportant force was the starting point of our present 
standing army. 

In 1661, John Crewe, Esq. M.P. for Brackley, for his 
services in bringing about the restoration, was raised to the 
peerage as baron Crewe of Steane, an honour which he enjoyed 
for eighteen years. By a parliament which met on the bth of 
May in that year, and in which Sir John Holman of Wark- 
worth was member for Banbury, the bishops were restored to 
their seats in the house of lords, and the corporation act was 
passed, by which nonconformists were virtually excluded from 
participating in the management of municipal affairs. On the 
14th of April, 1662, the venerable lord Saye and Sele, at the 
age of eighty, peacefully succumbed to the last enemy of man, 
and a nobler patriot never laid his honoured head in the dust. 
Priend and foe alike bear testimony to his firmness, his moder- 
ation, his clear insight of men and things, and the unspotted 
truthfulness which marked his character. 

In the course of the same year, the act of uniformity became 
law, requiring that all clergymen should declare their assent 
to every thing contained in the book of common prayer, and 
lake the oath of canonical obedience. They were allowed 
until Bartholomew's day to make up their minds, and the Eev. 
Samuel Wells, vicar of Banbury, resolved to throw his emolu- 
ments to the winds rather than subscribe the required declara- 
tion. He preached his farewell sermon from the words, "And 
now, behold, I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not 
knowing the things which shall befall me there.'' He con- 



206 THE HISTOEY 

tinned, however, to reside in the town for the next three years, 
when the stringent law called the " five mile act" compelled 
him to take up his abode at Deddington. A like course was 
followed by the ministers of Aynho, Bloxham, and Broughton, 
not one of whom would subscribe the articles. "Whilst sym- 
pathising with these two thousand men who thus gave up the 
comforts of life that they might adhere to principles dear to 
their hearts, it must not be forgotten that in the days when 
their partisans were in power, a still larger number of epis- 
copalian clergymen were expelled from their livings at a much 
shorter notice. In J 664, at the very time when prejudice ran 
high against dissent and its adherents, the foundation stone of 
the first non-conforming place of worship in Banbury was laid 
— the modest and unassuming meeting-house of the society of 
Eriends — not indeed the building in which they now assemble, 
but one which was erected on the same spot. 

The rupture with Holland in 1664, and that with Trance 
and Denmark in the follo^^dng year, present us with no 
materials for our local record ; nor need allusion be made to 
the disgrace at Chatham, when the Dutch admiral De Wit 
sailed up the Medway in 1667, and succeeded in burning so 
many of our vessels in the harbour. Passing over the perse- 
cutions of the Scottish covenanters, the absurdities of the 
"revelations" of Oates and Bedloe, and the judicial murders 
consequent thereon, we arrive at the year 1678, when parlia- 
ment was dissolved, there having been no general election for 
the space of seventeen years. But if the duration of that 
parliament was long, the existence of the next was sufficiently 
short ; for it met on the 6th of March, 1679, and was dis- 



OP BANBUEY. 207 

solved on the lOtli of the following July. Party spirit now 
ran high, and the terms Whig and Tory owe their origin to 
this date. Parliament was again summoned on the 21st of 
October, 1680, and both in this assembly and the last, Sir 
John Holman was returned for Banbury. Two more dissolu- 
tions rapidly followed, and still the borough returned the 
same representative. On the second of these occasions, the 
parliament met at Oxford, and both the court party and that 
of the country brought with them strong bodies of their 
servants and retainers, thus beariog little resemblance to an Eng- 
lish parliament. The Puritans wished to pass a bill excluding 
the duke of York, the king's brother, from succeeding to the 
crown — a measure which his majesty strenuously resisted, and 
after violent altercations, the house was dissolved. 

In 1682, the king contrived, with the assistance of the lord 
mayor of London, to deprive the liverymen of one of their 
ancient privileges, that of elecling both their sheriffs; when 
the corporation demurred, a writ of quo warranto was issued, 
and venal judges declared the charter invalid. Nearly all the 
other corporations in England, bearing in mind what had 
occurred in the metropolis, were induced to surrender their 
charters into the king's hands. Banbury followed the example, 
and the important documents that had been granted to the 
borough by Mary and James were now delivered up to the 
sovereign by the subservient corporation. A new charter was 
granted, extending the jurisdiction of the borough to the 
whole parish, including the hamlets forming the non-corporate 
portions of the present parliamentary borough. The charter, 
however, retained to his majesty greater powers than hereto- 



208 THE HISTORY 

fore, and placed the liberties of the burgesses more at his 
disposal. No mayor or recorder was to be admitted to office who 
liad not received the king's approval, and if the corporation 
should twice in succession nominate individuals distasteful to 
his majesty, he was empowered to appoint a fitting person to 
the office. A considerable sum was paid for this renewal and 
extension of the corporate privileges, although from an 
informality attending the enrolment, the ancient charters 
came to be subsequently acted upon. 

The Eye-house plot succeeded this achievement of the party 
of the court, and that was avenged by the execution of lord 
Eussell, Algernon Sydney, colonel "Walcot, and others who 
had taken part in the conspiracy. Anne the king's niece 
married prince George of Denmark in 1684, his majesty 
hoping that by this alHance he might be able to secure the 
goodwill of his protestant subjects. In 16 85, he was seized 
with an apoplectic attack, and expired on the 6th of February, 
having carried on the affairs of the state, for the last four 
years of his reign, without the aid or interference of any par- 
liament. His character was not inappropriately summed up 
in the well-known adage, " He never said a foolish thing, and 
never did a wise one.'' 

James II. now ascended the throne thus vacant through the 
decease of his elder brother, and although the new king made 
many professions of moderation, his actions were not quite so 
constitutional as his promises had led the nation to hope. 
The customs and excise had only been granted to the late 
king for life ; but James ordered them by proclamation to be 
levied as before. He went openly to mass, and sent Caryl to 



OF BANBUEY. 209 

Eome to make his submission to the pope, and to clear the 
way for the re-admission of England into the catholic church. 
But the principal offices in the state were still held by pro- 
testants, the great seal continuing to be entrusted to Baron 
Guilford of Wroxton, second son of the fourth lord North. 
This important post in the government was confided to him 
in 1683, after he had passed through the comparatively sub- 
altern departments of solicitor and attorney-general. It was 
whilst he held the former of these offices, that he espoused the 
lady Prances Pope, and thus succeeded to the possession of 
the Wroxton estate. 

The general election occurred in April, and the influence of 
the court preponderating in the corporation. Sir Dudley North, 
the lord keeper's brother, was returned as member for Banbury. 
Monmouth's rebellion was suppressed and followed by his 
execution; whilst an insurrection in Scotland, headed by 
Argyle, was also soon got under, and its leader sent to the 
scafPold. In consequence of repeated instances of disagree- 
ment with the crown, parliament was prorogued five times in 
the course of two years, and there being no prospect of a 
better understanding, it was dissolved. 

Lord Guilford's health decHned, and he was recommended 
by his physicians to try his native air; but neither that nor 
the waters of Astrop seem to have had any effect upon his 
constitution, for he succumbed to his malady on the 5th of 
September, 1685, and his remains were consigned to their last 
resting-place in Wroxton church. In 1687, his majesty paid 
a brief visit to Banbmy, and " touched" sundry persons 
afflicted with those scrofulous tumours popularly known as 



210 THE HISTOUY 

" the king's evil ;" but how far the patients were benefited by 
the royal manipulation, is a secret that has not been unfolded. 
The year 1688 was noted for the trial and acquittal of the six 
bishops, and for sundry attempts on the part of the king to 
bring about the restoration of the Eoman calhoHc faith. 
William prince of Orange, his majesty's son-in-law and nephew, 
assented to the free toleration of all forms of religion, but 
privately gave the protestants every assurance of his favour 
and regard. The rival parties in the state laid aside their 
animosity and looked to William as their sole protector. 
Preparations were quietly made in Holland for the invasion of 
England, and Louis of Prance offered to assist king James 
with both an army and a fleet, but the proposal was respectfully 
declined. Einding, however, that dis-satisfaction, discontent, 
and distrust were almost universally prevalent throughout the 
nation — the Roman catholic party forming the sole exception 
— and having been informed by his ambassador at the court 
of Holland that he might daily expect the long projected 
invasion, the king began to retrace his steps. He replaced 
the justices of the peace whom he had caused to be deposed ; 
he abolished the high court of commission ; he restored the 
expelled president of Magdalen college, Oxford ; nay, he even 
condescended to fawn upon the bishops whom he had so lately 
prosecuted. The ancient charters of London and other cor- 
porations were restored to them under the plea that the 
surrender had not been recorded, and thus the inhabitants of 
Banbury recovered possession of those documents, by which 
the town had been raised to the dignity of a royal borough. 
It is true, that by the restoration of the ancient charters, the 



OF BANBUEY. 211 

incorporated bounds of the borough were again sadly dimin- 
ished; but the corporation gained, in the powers of self- 
government, more than an equivalent for what it lost in extent 
of territory. 

All these concessions, however, came too late. On the 5th 
of November, the prince of Orange landed at Torquay with an 
army of fourteen thousand men, and all England was speedily 
in commotion. In Cheshire, lord Delamere took arms for the 
prince; the governor of Plymouth declared for the same 
cause ; the earl of Danby took possession of York in his name; 
the counties of Derby and Nottingham rose to his assistance. 
Deserted by those in whom he reposed the most unbounded 
confidence — abandoned even by his own family — the king, in 
despair, threw up the reins of government and fled to Trance, 
leaving the management of their affairs to his subjects. A 
convention met in London on the 22nd of January, 1689, in 
which Banbury was re])resented by Sir Eobert Dash wood of 
Wykham, and a resolution was agreed to in that assembly, 
that as the king had deserted his trust, he should be considered 
to have abdicated, and that the crown should be offered to 
William and Mary. 

Thus, the maxim of absolute hereditary right was utterly 
abrogated, and an acknowledgment made that the people had 
the power to set a ruler aside. The new sovereigns confirmed 
all protestants in the offices which they held, and proceeded 
with the reconstruction of the ministry. The convention was 
converted into a parliament, and on the 11th of April, the 
double coronation was solemnised at "Westminster. James 
landed in Ireland ; Londonderry stood out against him and 



SI a THE HISTORY 

was relieved after tlie garrison had been reduced to the greatest 
straits ; he summoned a parhament to meet in Dublin ; the 
duke of Schomberg landed an army at Carrickfergus and 
reduced both it and Belfast to obedience. The English parlia- 
ment met on the 19th of October, Sir Kobert Dash wood 
attending it as member for Banbury, and the house was dis- 
solved on the 6th of February, 1690, the new parliament being 
summoned for the 20th of March. 

A contested election took place in Banbury on the 24th of 
February, the burgesses at large insisting on their right to a 
vote in the return of the member for the borough. A hundred 
and forty freemen tendered their suffrages for John llawkes, 
Esq., but the mayor refused to receive them, on the ground 
that the power of election was vested solely in the corporation, 
which again returned Sir Eobert Dashwood as their represen- 
tative. This return" was petitioned against by the supporters 
of Mr. Hawkes, and the enquiry was referred to a committee 
of the house of commons, which after spending nearly two 
years in looking into precedents, examining witnesses, and 
listening to the arguments of counsel on both sides, came to 
the conclusion that Sir Robert Dashwood was duly elected, 
and that the franchise rested with the corporation alone. 

On the 12th of July, the decisive battle of the Boyne placed 
the crown securely on king William's brow, and James retired 
to his former residence in Erance. The subsequent proceedings 
of the king in Ireland and on the continent are not of sufficient 
interest to entitle them to a place in our local record; but it 
is enough to say that prudence regulated his majesty's actions, 
and he was enabled to steer the vessel of the state clear of all 



OF BANBURY. 213 

the rocks and quicksands which lay in his way. Queen 
Mary expired in the sixth year of her reign, after which her 
husband reigned alone. A new parliament was summoned to 
meet on the 22nd of November, 1695, and Sir Robert Dash- 
wood was again elected. This parliament lasted little more 
than two years, and the fourth house of commons in the reign 
of king William was called on to assemble on the 6th of 
Eebruary, 1698. The spirit of faction then run high, the 
contending parties being nearly equal balanced, and the bribery 
of electors was unprecedently great. In a small constituency 
like the Banbury corporation, disbursements from a heavy 
purse, judiciously applied, had a wonderful influence in deciding 
a contest, and James Isaacson, Esq., a London stockbroker, 
was returned as {heir representative. He was, however, soon 
afterwards expelled, and Sir John Cope was returned in his 
stead. The abdicated king James now expired at St. Germain's, 
and his son was acknowledged as king of England by the 
kings of Erance and Spain, the duke of Savoy, and the Pope ; 
but none of these took any steps to restore him to the throne. 
Nor did king William long survive his father-in-law and rival, 
for he expired of diarrhoea on the 8th of March, 1701, after 
a reign of thirteen years, a great part of which time he spent 
in arms upon the continent. 

Queen Anne now took in hand the helm of state, and 
resolved to maintain the alliances which the king had formed. 
War with France was declared in the following May, and the 
earl of Marlborough was appointed to the command of the 
forces. Parliament was dissolved and a new house summoned, 
shortly after the accession of her majesty, in which Charles 



214 THE HISTORY 

North, Esq. son of the late lord keeper was returned as the 
sitting member for Banbury. The success which attended lord 
Marlborough^s arms induced his sovereign to raise him to a 
dukedom, bestow upon him the manor of Woodstock, and 
erect the palace of Blenheim as a lasting memorial of a nation's 
gratitude. 

Among the many local changes that had taken place, the 
celebrated grammar school of Banbury had long since disap- 
peared, and a subscription was entered into by the inhabitants, 
to supply the want of a public seminary. The blue coat 
school was founded as the result of this subscription, in which 
reading, writing, arithmetic, and the church catechism were to 
be taught by the master, and sewing, spirming, and knitting, 
by the mistress. The salary of the former was to be 
£25 a year, and that of the latter one half of this amount. 
The children were to be provided with certain articles of wear- 
ing apparel, and two rooms over the borough gaol in the 
market place were fitted up for the reception of the pupils. 
The subscription was subsquently increased by several 
bequests from benevolent individuals, and for a hundred and 
ten years, successive generations continued to be taught in the 
same place. 

The duke of Marlborough's victories on the continent of 
Europe were of such a character as to point him out to pos- 
terity as the most consummate warrior of any age, and the 
troops he commanded as the bravest of the brave. The victory 
of Blenheim was followed by storming the Erench lines in 
Brabant, and the enemy was again defeated at the battle of 
Ramillies. But the crimson-stained honours of war are less 



OF BANBUET. 215 

glorious and enduring than the green trophies of peace, and 
all the victories of Marlborough sink into the shade when 
compared with the union of the two kingdoms, England and 
Scotland, and their legislatures amalgamated into one, an event 
which took place in November, 1707. The Tories succeeded 
to power, and the duke of Marlborough was dismissed from 
the command of the army, to which his grace of Ormond 
succeeded ; but his ill fortune was as conspicuous as the good 
genius of his predecessor had shone in the ascendant, and a 
peace was concluded with France in 1713. In this year also, 
a new parliament was summoned on the 10th of December, 
in which Jonathan Cope, Esq., the presumed heir to the 
Hanwell estate, was returned as member for Banbury. Dis- 
agreements in the ministry broke out into an open rupture ; 
and after a long attendance at a cabinet council, her majesty 
was seized with a lethargy, in which she continued to doze 
until the first of August, 1714, when she expired, having 
obtained the name of " the good queen Anne." 




216 THE HISTOKY 

CHAPTER XYII. 

The First of the Georges. — The Rebellion in the North. — Banbury forfeits 
its Charter. — A new one granted. — The King's Death. — George II. — The 
Annual Expences of State. — The Prince of Wales visits Wroxton. — The 
Eebellion of '45. — Murder in the Horse Fair. — Lord North. — High Price of 
Bread. — Sudden Death of the King. — Changes in the Government. — The 
Member for Banbury Prime Minister. — Lord Chatham and Junius. — The 
Cul worth Thieves. — Destruction of the Old Church. — Princely Visits to Wrox- 
ton. — Two Kings Burgesses of Banbury. — Long Illness, and Death of the King. 

EOEGE I., great-grandson of James I. landed at Green- 
wich from his electoral dominions on the 17th of 
September, amid the loyal acclammations of his subjects. His 
broken English may almost be deemed prophetic, as he 
responded to the thrilling and oft-repeated hurrah by the well- 
meant exclamation, " Good people ! I am come for your good 
— for all your goods r The Tories were now excluded from 
office, and the king was crowned on the 20th of October. A 
new parliament was summoned in the following March, in 
which Sir Jonathan Cope — he had in the interim been dubbed 
a baronet— was again chosen as member for Banbury. The 
most stringent laws were enacted against those who should 
espouse the cause of the Pretender, the son of the exiled 
James II., whose party had now gained large accessions to 
its numbers, from those who had been removed from the 
sunny side of the house. 

On the 6th of September, 1715, the earl of Mar unfurled 
the standard of rebellion in Scotland, and Mr. Thomas Eorster 



OF BANBUET. 217 

summoned the north of England to arms in aid of the cause 
of the house of Stuart. The malcontents in the west had 
formed the design of surprising Bristol ; but their secrets were 
discovered, and the leaders in that quarter were thrown into 
prison. The university and city of Oxford were kept in awe 
by the presence of large bodies of troops, and there appeared 
every prospect of another civil war. The insurgents in the 
north of England were headed by the earls of Derwentwater, 
Nithsdale, Winton, and Carnwath, the lord Kenmuir, and Mr. 
Eorster already mentioned ; but on the 12th of November, 
they were attacked by general WilHs at Preston, and after a 
smart encounter, they surrendered at discretion on the follow- 
ing day. On the same day was fought the battle of Dumblane, 
between the earl of Mar and duke of Argyle, in which the 
right wing of each army drove off their opponents, and the 
victory on either side was very problematical. 

But the star of king George continued iii the ascendant, 
whilst that of legitimacy was soon found upon the wane ; for 
although James himself landed at Peterhead on the 22nd of 
December, with only six gentlemen in his retinue, and joined 
lord Mar at Petterosse where he was proclaimed king, yet on the 
advance of Argyle, his followers retreated, and the chevalier 
re-embarked at Montrose for the continent. Still the king- 
dom remained in a most unsettled state. Eiots took place in 
many of the principal towns ; for although a considerable num- 
ber of the insurgent leaders had paid for their treason with the 
loss of their heads, yet what with "nonjurors" and "malcon- 
tents," there was still in the country a sufficiency of disaffected 
men to spread the principles of discontent and treason. On 



218 THE HISTORY 

tlie anniversary of the birth-day of the prince of Wales in 17 J 6, 
there were serious riots in Oxford, and the officers of the 
regiment quartered in that city, assembled in honour of the 
occasion, were rather roughly treated by the mob. On the 1st 
Monday in September, when the corporation of Banbury were 
met for the election of the chief magistrate for the year, there 
were serious differences of opinion within the council, and 
tumultuous gatherings of the populace without, so that the 
assembly broke up at midnight without having made choice of 
a mayor. When the recorder was about to hold his court of 
quarter sessions in the following year, a writ of quo warranto 
was issued, and it was eventually decided in the court of king's 
bench, that the corporation having failed to comply with the 
requirements of the charter, that important document was 
rendered null and void. 

A new charter was granted in 1718, naming the mayor, 
twelve aldermen, and six capital burgesses, who with the 
recorder and chamberlain were to form the common council. 
It ordered also that thirty assistant burgesses were to be elected, 
whose duty would be to aid the mayor in keeping order in the 
borough, and from among whom all vacancies were to be filled 
up. The recorder was empowered to try all persons charged 
with felony or other offences committed within the borough, 
and the corporation were authorised to erect a gallows within 
the borough bounds, and to hang thereon all *' felons, murder- 
ers, or other malefactors," who should have transgressed the 
law within their jurisdiction. 

In the same year, the duke of Ormond sailed from Cadiz 
with six thousand Spanish troops, and arms for double that 



OF BANBURY. 219 

number, hi ten ships of war, for the purpose of raising another 
insurrection; but at Cape Finisterre, his fleet was disabled 
and separated in a gale, and only two frigates arrived in Scot- 
land. The three hundred Spaniards took possession of the 
pass of Glenshiel, but surrendered on the approach of general 
Wightman with the troops of king George. This was followed 
by the bursting of the south sea bubble, which entailed misery 
and distress upon thousands who had ventured their all in the 
loudly-praised scheme, and were reduced to beggary and 
wretchedness in consequence of its failure. 

The parliament which met on the 9th of October, 1762, and 
in which Mr. Cope of Hanwell represented Banbury, suspended 
the habeas corpus act for a whole year, and passed a law by 
which the sum of £100,000 was ordered to be levied upon the 
estates of the Roman catholics, towards defraying the expence 
incurred in suppressing the late commotions. On the 3rd of 
June, 1727, the king embarked at Greenwich for Holland, 
where he landed on the 7 th, but on his way to Hanover was 
seized with paralysis, and expired at Osnaburg on the 11th of 
June, 

George II. now ascended the throne, vacant through his 
father's decease, and a new parliament was summoned to meet 
on the 23rd of January, 1728. The hon. Francis North, son 
of the second earl of Guilford,' was returned as member for 
Banbury, and as the Whigs were now in office, he took his 
seat in the opposition. The sum of four millions was voted 
for the expence of the year, including a standing army of 
22,900 men, and a naval force of 15,000 seamen, £230,000 for 
the maintenance of 12,000 Hessians, a subsidy of £50,000 



220 THE HISTORY 

to the king of Sweden, and half that sum to the petty duke 
of Wolfenbuttle, who for this allowance, gravely guaranteed 
to keep the monarch of Great Britain on his throne. On the 
death of lord Guildford in 1729, a vacancy occurred in the 
representation of Banbury, the sitting member having suc- 
ceeded to his late father's title and his seat in the house of 
peers, when Toby Chauncey, Esq. of Edgcote was returned by 
tlie corporation. He did not retain his honours long, for he 
died in March, 1733, when he was succeeded by a member of 
the family of Kuollys, by courtesy styled viscount Wallingford, 
but who, had it not been for the mistake alluded to in page 
1 16, might have succeeded to the earldom of Banbury. He 
was again returned at the general election in 1734, and con- 
tinued to represent the borough until the period of his death 
— an event which occurred six years afterwards — when he was 
succeeded by Mr, William Moore. Erederick, prince of Wales, 
at this time paid a visit to lord North at Wroxton, and the 
event is commemorated by the obehsk erected in the park, 
which from the inscription appears to have been built by the 
express orders of his royal highness. Sir John Willes of 
Astrop was also at this period lord chief justice of the court of 
common pleas, and his son John succeeded Mr. Moore in the 
representation of Banbury. 

But this brings us down to the rebellion of 1745, when on 
the 19th of August, the young pretender unfurled his father's 
standard in the wilds of Glensinuan, and was joined by many 
haidy sons of the mountain. King George was then absent 
on the continent of Europe, but he hurried home on receiving 
the startling intelligence. The marquis of TuUibardine, the 



OP BANBUET. 2^1 

duke of Perth, viscount Strathallan, lord Nairn, lord George 
Murray, and many others, had enrolled their men under the 
prince's banners. Perth opened its gates ; the city of Edin- 
burgh was taken by surprise ; in ten short minutes the troops 
of Sir John Cope were utterly routed at the battle of Preston- 
pans, leaving five hundred dead upon the field. On the 6th of 
November, Charles entered England by the western border, and 
in three days, the castle of Carlisle surrendered to his arms. 
He arrived at Manchester on the 29th of the month, and the 4th 
of December found him at Derby. Disappointed of the 
succours he expected to join him, he then commenced his 
retreat into Scotland, defeated general Hawley at Ealkirk on 
on the i7th of January, 1746, but was totally routed at 
Culloden on the 1 6th of April, and made his escape to Trance 
with very great difficulty. 

On the 7th of March, 1746, a widow named Lydia Wild 
was inhumanly murdered in her own house in the Horse Eair, 
by a weaver named Parr, who, after fracturing her skull with 
a blow from a hammer, deliberately cut her throat. Detection, 
however, followed closely upon the committal of the crime, 
and it was seen that robbery had been the inducement for 
the horrid deed, as some £20 of the widow's money was found 
in his possession. He was tried before the recorder, by whom 
he was doomed to die, and his body to be hung in chains. 
The first part of the sentence was carried into effect in the 
Horse Pair, in front of the house where the murder was com- 
mitted, and the gibbet where the remains were suspended was 
erected by the way- side leading from Broad street to Easington. 

Parliament was dissolved in the month of June, 1747, and 



222 THE HISTORY 

Banbury was again represented by Mr. Willes of Astrop. At 
this time war was being vigorously carried on between this 
country and Prance, but was brought to a close in 1748 by 
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. This was followed, in two years 
afterwards, by the death of the prince of Wales, who was cut 
off in the prime of his manhood, and was deeply lamented by 
the nation at large. Parliament was dissolved in April, 1754, 
and a new one summoned, to which, at the age of twenty-two, 
lord North of Wroxton, eldest son of the earl of Guilford, was 
returned as member for Banbury, and continued its representa- 
tive until 1790. There was at this time a severe contest for 
the county, which after a six days' poll terminated in favour 
of the Tory candidates lord Wenman and Sir James Dashwood ; 
but on a scrutiny taking place, lord Parker and Sir Edmund 
Turner were declared to be returned. It must be borne in 
mind, however, that a Whig government was in power at the 
lime, and had much influence with a subservient parliament. 
The year 1756 was remarkable for the great dearth and high 
price of corn, and a bill was passed to prevent its exportation, 
by which an embargo was laid on all outward-bound vessels 
laden with corn, bread, or flour. This, however, was found 
insufficient to remedy the evil, and in the spring of the follow- 
ing year, it was enacted that for a specified time, foreign corn 
should be admitted free of duty, and all distillation from grain 
was prohibited. In 1757, the celebrated coalition ministry 
was formed, of which both Pitt and Pox were members, and in 
which lord North, the member for Banbury, was raised to 
office as one of the lords of the treasury in 1759. On the 
25th of October, 1760, without any premonitory symptom. 



OF BANBURY. 223 

the king dropped down in his palace at Kensington, and 
almost immediately expired in consequence of a ruptured 
ventricle of the heart. 

George III., grandson of the late monarch, now quietly 
succeeded to the regal power, and in the first session of his first 
parliament, which met on the 18th of November, in order to 
prosecute with vigour the war with Trance, the supplies 
amounted to nearly twenty millions. Shortly after his 
accession, the king raised the princess Charlotte of Mecklen- 
berg Strelitz to share his throne, and their majesties were 
crowned on the 22nd of September. The Bute administration 
rose and fell. Grenville gave place to Eockingham ; but still 
lord North continued in office. The imposition of taxes on 
the North American colonies caused a spirit of resistance 
among the inhabitants, which ended in the formation of the 
United States. Pitt was raised to the earldom of Chatham, 
and the duke of Grafton became first lord of the treasury. In 
1767, there was a change in the government, and lord North 
became chancellor of the exchequer. In 1770, the earl of 
Chatham declared for reform, the Grafton administration fell, 
and the member for Banbury became prime minister of 
England. 

He is represented as having been a most amiable man in 
private life, and possessed of many elegant acquirements. 
With much official experience, he was thoroughly acquainted 
with the routine of public business, and had become an expert 
and eloquent master of debate. His amiability of temper was 
but rarely ruffled, and his good qualities had secured him a 
greater amount of personal esteem than any preceding premier 



224 THE HISTORY 

of Great Britain. Bat neither his ability nor his good qualities 
could disarm opposition, or constitute office a " bed of roses." 
The earl of Chatham headed the opposition in the house of 
peers, and proved a debater with whom no rival in the 
administration could cope. His daring speech will be long 
remembered, when he was interrupted by cries of " To the 
bar ! to the bar !" and thundered forth in reply, " My words 
remain unretracted, unexplained, re-affirmed ! I will trust no 
sovereign in the world with the means of purchasing the 
liberties of the people." The popular cry was then " Wilkes 
and Liberty !" and as may be easily surmised, the member for 
Banbury was nowise in love with it. Then there were also 
the letters of " Junius" — terrible thorns in the side of the 
minister — ''Junius," of whom Burke thus spoke in the 
house : — '^ How comes this Junius to have broken through the 
cobwebs of the law, and to htve ranged uncontrolled, unpun- 
ished through the land ? The myrmidons of the court have 
been long, and are still pursuing him in vain. They will not 
spend their time upon me, or upon you, when the mighty boar 
of the forest, that has broken through all their toils is before 
them. But what will all their efforts avail ? No sooner has 
he wounded one, than he strikes down another dead at his 
feet. Por my own part, when I saw his attack upon the king, 
I own my blood ran cold. Not that he has not asserted many 
bold truths : yes, sir, there are in that composition many bold 
truths by which a wise prince might profit. But while I 
expected his final fall, behold him rising still higher, and 
coming down souse upon both houses of parliament : — not 
content with carrying away our royal eagle, he has laid you 



OF BANBURY. 225 

prostrate, and king, lords, and commons thus become but the 
sport of his fury." The withering sarcasms of "Junius" 
must have been keenly felt, to have elicited from Burke such 
statements as these ; but so well did the writer maintain his 
incognito, that all the subtleties of the law, and all the ma- 
chinery at the disposal of the state were levelled against him 
and his publisher in vain. 

It may interest some to know that in J772, the total sup- 
plies voted for the year amounted but to £7,860,250, and 
that the national debt was then somewhat under one hundred 
and thirty millions. In 1774, the struggle commenced be- 
tween Great Britain and her colonies in North A^merica ; and 
in 1775, general "Washington, whose great-grandfather had 
been a farmer in Sulgrave, was appointed to the command of 
the armed sons of Columbia. Dr. Benjamin Pranklin, another 
distinguished name in connection with America, was also 
sprung from a Banbury stock, the ashes of his grandfather 
having now reposed for nearly a couple of centuries in the 
parish churchyard, and his father having served his appren- 
ticeship to a dyer in the town. In 1776, the American con- 
gress issued the declaration of independence; and in 1778, 
Prance entered into a treaty with the revolted states. Disaster 
succeeded disaster on the western continent — Prance and 
Spain were in arms against Great Britain — a vote of want of 
confidence in ministers was lost only by nine votes, and on 
the 20th of March, 1782, lord North tendered the resigna- 
tion of his cabinet, and was appointed by his majesty to the 
lord wardenship of the Cinque ports. The marquis of Eock- 
ingham succeeded to power; but death shortly afterwards 



226 IHE HISTORY 

claimed him for his own, and the responsibilities of office 
were accepted by lord Shelbourne, who on the 20th of 
January, 1783, acknowledged the independence of the thir- 
teen states of America. In the discussion of the terms of 
peace, the new ministry was left in a minority, and under the 
premiersliip of the duke of Portland, lord North took the 
seals of the "home department/' But in this country, 
coalition governments are rarely lasting, and the close of the 
year saw Mr. Pitt at the helm of the state. In 1784, there 
was a general election, and although lord North's co-opera- 
tion with Fox had considerably weakened bis influence with 
his party, he was for the twelfth time returned member for 
Banbury. 

A gang of desperadoes had long infested this neighbour- 
hood, having its head quarters at Culworih, and its ramifica- 
tions extending through several adjacent villages. The police 
regulations of those days were exceedingly defective, and the 
thieves seem to have carried on their depredations for many 
years without hindrance or molestation. They belonged 
chiefly to the labouring class, and numbered upwards of a 
dozen members; but there were one or two sous of farmers 
among the number. The gang, however, was eventually 
broken up, and four of them were executed at Northampton 
on the 3rd of August, 1787, after having confessed to their 
participation in nearly fifty robberies. Their names were 
John Smith, sen., William Bowers, William Pettipher, and 
Bichard Law, all of Culworth. The parish clerk of Sulgrave, 
AYiUiam Abbot by name, was transported for life, and John 
Smith, jun., his brother W^iUiam, and W^illiam Terrill were 



OP BANBUEY. 227 

acquitted ; but the first-named of the last three was executed 
at Warwick two years afterwards, for a highway robbery com- 
mitted near Gaydon. Others of the gang absconded and 
were never more heard of, whilst two or three settled down 
quietly to the peaceful pursuits of honest industry. 

^'ears having been for some time entertained relative to the 
safety of the parish church, it was surveyed in 1773 by two 
gentlemen from London, who declared " the tower to be very 
substantial and fit to stand for ages." They also gave their 
opinion that " the chancel and that part of the church north 
and south of the tower was in very good condition, and would 
stand extremely well with small repair ;" but the portiou of 
the building to the westward of the tower was described as 
being " in a very dangerous condition, and should be taken 
down and rebuilt.'" In 1785, the church was surveyed by 
Mr. Dalton, who declared it to be " as safe as St. PauFs in 
London ;" but in the following year that gentleman seems to 
have changed his mind, for in company with Mr. Burton he 
reported the roof of the south aisle as '^ ruinous and unsafe," 
and that it would be necessary to take down the tower to the 
level of the roof, as it continued to press upon and injure the 
adjoining piers. They also recommended other alterations 
which would cost £2,100 in the aggregate; but even then, 
they said, they could not give an assurance that it would not 
require a material outlay for annual repair. On the 12th of 
April, 1790, it was resolved in vestry that the church and 
tower should be taken down and rebuilt ; and on the 24th of 
May, the seal of the corporation was affixed to the act of 
parliament just passed, without a single dissenting voice. 



228 THE HISTOEY 

In the month of July, the inner fittings of the church 
were removed, and the work of demolition went on apace till 
the morning of Sunday the 12th of December, when the 
principal aisle came down with a terrific crash that was heard 
at the distance of two miles from the spot. The tower fell 
on the following day — the pillars which supported it having 
been previously partially destroyed— and in its fall, it retained 
its perpendicular position until the base reached the ground, 
when it shivered, and cracked, and finally fell to pieces, with 
a noise that reverberated through the streets like thunder. 
But the work of destruction was not yet complete ; for many 
of the exterior walls were still standing, and even gunpowder 
had to be resorted to, wherewith to dislodge the substantial 
masonry. The present church was erected on the site of that 
which had thus been destroyed, and was opened for public 
worship on the 5th of September, 1797, when Dr. Crotch 
presided at the organ, and the hon. and rev. Thomas Twis- 
tleton, D.D., preached from the gospel by St. John iv. 20. 
*^ Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; and ye say, that 
in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.'^ But 
the portico and tower of the church were not finished until 
1822, and the whole debt was not cleared off until 1861, 
seventy years after the passing of the act. The whole cost of 
the building — principal and interest — amounted to nearly 
£40,000. The tower is 133 feet high, and contains a peal of 
eight bells, whilst the church has accommodation for 2,300 
worshippers. 

The reader will now return to the dissolution of parliament 
on the lith of June, 1790, and he will find that at the 




1^ 

■4 



K 



.:! 



OF BANBUET. 229 

general election which then ensued, lord North was returned 
as member for Banbury for the thirteenth time; but his 
father, the earl of Guildford, dying on the 4th of August 
immediately ensuing, his lordship vacated his seat in the 
commons, and took his place among the peers of the realm. 
He was succeeded in the representation of the borough by 
his eldest son George lord North, who continued a member 
of the lower house for two yeais, when on his father's demise, 
he too was called to the house of lords. He was succeeded 
in the vacant seat by his younger brother Frederick, who was 
appointed to a lucrative post under government in 1794, 
when Mr. William Holbech, of Farnborough, was elected 
member for the borough. 

In the month of February, 1793, war was declared against 
the French republic, the leaders of which had, a week or two 
previously, led forth their monarch to a public death. Little 
was done this year save a large increase to the army and navy; 
but on the 1st of June, 1794, Lord Howe gained a brilliant 
victory over the French admiral Joyeuse, in which he cap- 
tured seven ships of the line. The allies were not so suc- 
cessful by land, where their energies were crippled by want of 
concert among their commanders, and both Belgium and 
Holland fell under the sway of republican France. The year 
1795 passed over without the achievement of any important 
results, except the withdrawal of the shattered British army 
from Holland, and an ineffectual effort to aid the insurgent 
royalists of La Yendee. In 1796, the archduke Charles 
saved Germany, but Bonaparte over-ran the greater portion 
of Italy. In the month of October, a new parliament was 



230 THE HISTORY 

summoned, and Dudley North, Esq., another member of the 
Wroxton family, was returned as Banbury's representative. 

The year 1797 is chiefly memorable for the victory gained 
by Sir John Jervis over the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Yin- 
cent, and for that off Camper down, won by admiral Duncan 
over the Dutch. But whilst England thus proved herself 
triumphant by sea, the Erench were equally victorious on land, 
and the warlike army of Italy showed itself by its bravery in 
the field, the celerity of its movements, and its noble powers 
of patient endurance, to be in all respects worthy of Napoleon 
its chief. The year 1798 was principally remarkable for the 
Irish rebellion on the one hand, and the battle of the Nile on 
the other, in the latter of which Nelson captured ten Erench 
ships of the line. 

The commencement of the present century found Europe 
convulsed from end to end ; for Bonaparte had now returned 
from his campaigns in Egypt, and had raised himself to the 
dignity of first consul of Erance. In consequence of the 
great scarcity of corn in England, and the consequent high 
price of bread, serious riots occurred throughout the country, 
and from these Banbury was not found to be exempt. An 
act was passed prohibiting the sale of bread until it had been 
baked for twenty-four hours ; and this act was rapidly fol- 
lowed by others suspending distillation of spirits from grain, 
and granting bounties on the importation of foreign corn. 
In the course of the present year, the incorporating act of 
union with Ireland was completed, and the " sister country '' 
was no longer blessed with a litigious parliament in College 
Green. 



OE BANBURY. 281 

A coalition of the northern powers of Europe with Prance 
again called the fleets of England to the sea, and on the 2nd 
of April, 1801, Nelson vanquished the Danish fleet at Copen- 
hagen, protected and covered as it was by batteries both afloat 
and on shore, and by this victory he dissolved the bonds of 
the northern confederacy. In 1802, the parHament was again 
dissolved, and Dudley ]^forth, Esq., v/as returned as member 
for Banbury. George, third earl of Guilford, died in the 
course of this year without male issue, but leaving behind him 
three daughters, of whom the present baroness North was the 
second, and is now the sole survivor. 

War again broke out between this country and Erance in 
1803, after a short and hollow peace; and in consequence of 
the threats of Napoleon to invade England) her peaceful citi- 
zens flew to arms, and in one form or another, with regular 
soldiers, volunteers, militia, or yeomen, her coasts bristled 
with bayonets, and half-a-million of her sons stood ready for 
the fray. Nor was Banbury behind the rest of the country ; 
for then, as now, she readily contributed her armed quota, 
and a fair proportion of her townsmen were ready to repel the 
expected foe, and to peril their all for their fatherland. On 
the 18th of May, 1804, Na])oleon was raised to the imperial 
throne ; and on the 2nd of the following December, he was 
crowned emperor, the new dynasty being consecrated by the 
presence of the pope. On the 26th of May, 1805, he was 
crowned king of Italy and Milan, and Genoa was added to 
the empire of Erance. On the 21st of October, the battle of 
Trafalgar gave England the greatest naval victory she had 
ever gained, but it cost her the life of her greatest admiral. 



'ZdZ THE HISTORY 

for Nelson fell in the arms of victory. In the summer of 
that year, the prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., paid a 
visit to lord Guilford at Wroxton — an event that is recorded 
by a second inscription on the obelisk in the park — and again 
in 1806, and also in 1808. On his second visit, he was ac- 
companied by his broiiier the duke of Clarence, afterwards 
William IV., and the freedom of the borough of Banbury 
was offered to both princes and graciously accepted, so that 
in the record-rolls of the burgesses are to be found the names 
of two of England's kings. 

William Pitt, a statesman who had swayed the destinies of 
the countrv for twenty years without either enriching himself 
or aggraiidisioir his family, died on the 23rd of January, 1806, 
and was succteded in office by the administration of lord 
Grenville. Tiie new government attempted to negociate a 
peace, but the attempt was found to be a failure, and the 
death of Fox on the 13th of September caused some trifling 
changes in the ministry. A dissolution of parliament fol- 
lowed, and Mr. Praed successfully contested the borough 
with Mr. Dudley North the former member, when Mr. Praed 
polled ten, and his opponent only six votes. The coalition 
cabinet was dismissed by the king early in 1807, and the 
duke of Portland was called on to form an administration. 
The new premier advised a dissolution, an event which took 
place on the 29th of April, and the rival candidates for the 
corporation's favour were again found face to face in the field. 
On this occasion the votes were equal, and a double return 
was made by the mayor, which was directed by the house of 
commons to be amended, and a new writ ordered to issue. 



OF BANBURY. 233 

Now indeed came the tug of war; but in the result, the 
influence of the house of Wroxton was found in the ascendant, 
for Mr. North polled five votes to three. 

The commencement of 1808 found England at war with 
nearly every country in Europe ; for even Portugal was over- 
run by the troops of Erance, and Joseph Bonaparte, after 
having handed over the crown of Naples to Murat, was raised 
to the throne of Spain. But the junta of Seville proclaimed 
war against the invader, and England supplied them with 
both arms and money. Portugal rose in open revolt, and Sir 
Arthur Wellesley landed at the mouth of the river Mondego, 
routed the Prench at Yimiera, and Juuot and all his array 
capitulated. Sir John Moore was sent to aid the Spaniards ; 
but Napoleon and his army were already there, and after 
having conducted a masterly retreat in the immediate presence 
of a foe flushed with a long career of success, the English 
general fell at Corunna in the month of January, 1809. 

But now a commander re-appears upon the scene, qualified 
to cope with the first marshals of Prance, and to check her 
eagles in their flight of conquest. Sir Arthur Wellesley 
returns to his old battle ground, and succeeds in driving 
Soult out of Portugal, capturing all his cannon, baggage, 
ammunition, and even his military chest and cash. The 
French had upwards of 200,000 soldiers in Spain, yet the 
British general boldly led his 23,000 men across the frontier, 
and effected a junction with the Spanish general Cuesta. The 
battle of Talavera was fought on the 27th and 28th of July, 
in which the Prench marshal Victor was utterly defeated with 
a loss of 7,000 of the flower of his troops. But threatened 



234 TUB HISTOaY 

OTi both flanks with armies, each of which was thrice as 
numerous as his own, and being only indifferently supported 
by the Spaniards, Sir Arthur retreats once more into Portugal 
and is raised to the peerage as Viscount Wellington of Talavera. 
In otlier parts of the continent the star of Napoleon was high 
in the ascendant. He fought and won the terrible battle of 
AVagram, after which the humbled house of Hapsburg was 
compelled to sue for an inglorious peace. The badly-planned 
expedition to Walcheren cost England a large amount of trea- 
sure and ten thousand men, bringing disgrace upon hei arms 
and deserved censure on the memory of Castlereagh. 

In 1810, Cadiz was the principal fortress in Spain which 
still held out against the power of the Trench, who were now 
commanded in the peninsula by marshal Massena. That com- 
mander moved his troops onwards to Portugal, for the pur- 
pose of " driving the British leopards into the sea,^' and on 
the 27 th of September, he attacked lord Wellington on the 
heights of Busaco, but was repulsed wath great loss. After 
liaving achieved this, the British retired within the strongly- 
fortified lines of Torres Yedras, thus covering and defending 
the city of Lisbon. While these operations were going on, 
Napoleon espoused a daughter of the Emperor of Austria, 
after having divorced the faithful Josephine, and his next step 
was to incorporate Holland with the overgrown empire of 
which he wielded the sceptre. It was also in the course of 
the present year that the mental aberrations of George III. 
became too conspicuous for him to be longer entrusted with 
the royal functions, and the sovereign powers were confided to 
the heir apparent, with the title of " prince regent." 



OF BANBURY. 235 

Od the 5tli of March, 1811, general Graham fought and 
won the battle of Barossa, the French losing 3000 in killed 
and wounded. Marshal Beresford defeated Soult at Badajos, 
in May, after whicli Lord Wellington made two unsuccessful 
attempts to take the town in question. Towards the close of 
the year, the czar of Eussia joined the other cabinets of 
Europe, who now appeared in earnest to break their fetters, 
and France called forth fresh conscripts to the field. On good 
Friday in this year, a calamitous fire broke out in Warkworth, 
and although every effort was made to suppress it, nearly the 
whole village was destroyed. 

In January, 1(S12, lord Wellington carried Ciudad Rodrigo 
by storm, after an active siege of twelve days, and for this 
gallant action he was raised to an earldom. On the 7th of 
April, Badajos fell before the determined onset of the British 
army, and on the 27th of June, Lord Wellington captured 
Salamanca. On the 22nd of July, he defeated Marmont on 
the banks of the Garena, taking 7,000 prisoners, eleven pieces 
of cannon, and two eagles. The conqueror entered Madrid 
on the 12th of August, and king Joseph fled to the left bank 
of the Tagus. But the concentration of superior numbers 
again required that the English commander should retreat, 
which he carried out in a masterly style, placing his army 
once more along the frontiers of Portugal. On the 14th of 
September, Napoleon entered Moscow in triumph ; but here 
the flames destroyed the towering hopes of the conqueror, and 
in October he reluctantly gave orders to return to Prance. In 
the course of this disastrous movement, danger lurked at 
every step, and 300,000 men were found frozen under the 



236 THE HISTORY 

snow when the sun of the following spring had dissipated the 
mantle with which the previous winter had enshrouded the 
dead. On the 24th of November, a new parliament met in 
London, to which the hon. Frederick Sylvester North Douglas, 
son of lord Glenbervie the borough recorder, was returned as 
the representative for Banbury. 

In the middle of May, 1813, lord Wellington's army again 
entered Spain in three columns, and on the 21st of June, he 
defeated the Erench army at Yittoria, capturing 150 pieces of 
cannon, four hundred and fifteen waggons of ammunition, all 
the baggage of the enemy and their military stores, together 
with the baton of field-marshal Jourdan. Between the 25th 
of July and the 2nd of August there were ten battles fought 
in the passes of the Pyrenees, from which at length marshal 
Soult recoiled, having been driven back by the British at 
every point of attack. San Sebastian was stormed on the 8th 
of September, andPampeluna yielded on the 31st of October, 
by which time lord Wellington and his vanguard had de- 
scended into the fertile plains of France. The terrible battle 
of Leipsic fought from the 14th to the 19th of October was 
decided against Napoleon, who lost therein 80,000 men, and 
he then retired to the banks of the Rhine. 

The bloody drama on the continent is now drawing to a 
close. Nearer and nearer the Russians, Prussians, and Aus« 
trians advance upon Paris, and on the 27th of March, 1814, 
the Parisians hear the sounds of war drawing nigh to their 
gates. On the 30th, the capital surrendered to the victorious 
allies, and on the 10th of April, marshal Soult was defeated 
by lord Wellington at Toulouse. On the 11th, Napoleon 



OF BANBUEY. 237 

signed the treaty of abdication, and on tlie 20t"h, lie withdrew 
to Elba with four hundred of his guards. But on the 1st of 
March, in the year 1815, he again landed in France, and 
having been joined by those who were sent to oppose his pro- 
gress, marched in triumph on the capital. Again Europe ap- 
pealed to arms, and on the 18th of June, on the crimsoned 
field of Waterloo, the star of Napoleon's glory was extin- 
guished for ever. 

Ai the general election in 1818, the hon. E. Douglas was 
again returned for the borough, but his death occurring in 
the following year, he was succeeded by the hon. H. Legge, 
another relative of the Wroxton family. There is a monu- 
ment erected in the National School to the memory of Mr. 
Douglas, setting forth his philanthropic exertions in the cause 
of education. On the 29th of January, 1820, king George 
III., whose mental alienation had undergone no change, was 
summoned to that tribunal from the decision of which there 
is no appeal, leaving behind him the character, that if he was 
a weak prince, he was at the same time a well-meaning man* 




238 THE HISTORY 

CHAPTEE XVIII. 
(Kcor^E 3rF«, TOiIIiam HU., anti Fictorfa. 

Accession of the Prince Regent. — Political Changes. — William the IV. — 
The Reform Bill. — Corporation Reform. — Judicial Difficulties. — Victoria. — 
Contested Elections.— The present High Steward.— Murder of Kalahergo. — 
South Banbury. — As We Are. 

EOEGE lY., who for the preceding ten years had 
wielded the royal authority as regent, now ascended 
the vacant throne. The parliament was dissolved as a matter 
of course, and Mr. Legge was again returned member for 
Banbury. Bat there was now a loud cry for reform; and in 
consequence of their well-known dislike to political change, 
the corporation got rather roughly handled by the populace, 
who immured their civic rulers in their own Town Hall. Nor 
was the king himself over popular with his subjects; for by 
the spirit of persecution with Avhich he hunted down his in- 
jured queen, he alienated from himself the affections of his 
people, and the beginning of his reign was not by any means 
a triumphal entry on a monarch's career. When that most 
unpopular measure " the divorce bill " was withdrawn by the 
government at its last stage, the inhabitants of Banbury were 
by no means chary in manifesting their joy at the queen's 
escape. 

In 1826, Mr. Legge accepted a situation at the Board of 
Customs, and his younger brother Arthur was chosen member 
in his stead. Parliament was dissolved, and the same gentle- 
man was again returned. Lord LiverpooFs administration 



OF BANBUEY. 239 

was succeeded by that of Mr. Canning, whose death occurred 
in 1827, and lord Goderich was called upon to assume the 
reins of government. The battle of Navarino was fought 
and won, shortly after which " untoward event " the vacillating 
cabinet fell to pieces. The duke of Wellington was sent for 
and commissioned by his majesty to form a government, so 
that when parliament met for business on the 29th of Janu- 
ary, 1828, the retired warrior took his seat as first lord of the 
treasury. In this session, mainly through the persevering 
advocacy of Lord John Eussell, the odious " test and corpo- 
ration act" of the second Charles was swept away; and 
through the instrumentality of the Irish association, Daniel 
O'Connell was returned member for Clare. This was followed 
by Catholic emancipation in 1829, and in June, 1830, George 
IV. slept with his fathers. 

On the 23rd of July, shortly after his accession to the 
throne, William IV. prorogued the parliament in person, and 
dissolved it by proclamation on the following day. Henry 
Villiers Stuart, cousin to the then representative of the Wrox- 
ton family, was returned by the corporation as member for 
Banbury. The legislature assembled on the 26th of October ; 
and on the 15th of November, on the motion of Sir Henry 
Parnell for an inquiry into the accounts of the civil list, the 
government was defeated by a majority of twenty-nine. On 
the following day, ministers resigned, and were succeeded in 
office by the cabinet of earl Grey. It may interest some per- 
sons to call to mind the principal personages comprised in the 
new government, which was enabled to carry but the greatest 
peaceful revolution of modern times. Lord Brougham, lord 



240 THE HISTORY 

cliancellor ; lord Althorpe, chancellor of the exchequer ; lords 
Melbourne, Palmerston, and Goderich, home, foreign, and 
colonial secretaries ; lord John Eussell, paymaster of forces ; 
the marquis of Anglesea, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, with Mr. 
Stanley (now the earl of Derby) for his chief secretary ; Sir 
James Graham, first lord of the admiralty ; lord Lansdowne, 
president of the council ; lord Durham, privy seal ; and lord 
Holland, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. 

Such was the composition of that government which on the 
1st of March, 1831, brought forward the reform bill for Eng- 
land and Wales, which consisted of three distinct parts, viz., 
the disfranchisement of certain places which had previously 
sent members to parliament, and among these the borough of 
Brackley was included ; the enfranchisement of other places 
which had risen to opulence and importance throughout the 
kingdom ; and the extension of the franchise so as to increase 
the number of electors in those places that were allowed to 
retain the privilege. The debate lasted seven nights, and on 
the 14th, the bill was read a first time without dividing the 
house. " The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill," 
was now the watchward of reformers of every grade, and both 
houses of parliament were inundated with petitions in its 
favour. On the 21st of March, lord John Eussell moved the 
second reading of the measure, whilst Sir R. Vivyan proposed . 
that it be read a second time that day six months. The dis- 
cussion lasted for two nights, and the numbers were 301 and 
802, giving ministers a majority of one vote. On the 18th 
of April, the house went into committee ; when in a full as- 
sembly, ministers were left in a minority of eight, and it was 



OF BANBURY. 241 

then resolved by the cabinet that after the dispatch of the 
necessary business, an appeal should be made to the country. 
This was resisted by the opponents of the measure, and on the 
22nd, as lord Wharncliffe in the house of lords and Sir E. 
Peel in the commons were in the act of denouncing the con- 
duct of the ministers, the deep boom of the cannon announced 
the king's approach, for the purpose of proroguing the par- 
liament prior to its dissolution. 

Great was the joy of the people throughout the kingdom 
on witnessing the firm determination of their rulers to keep 
faith with those under their sway, and the most strenuous 
efforts were everywhere made to return to parliament such 
candidates as were friendly to the ministerial measure. Mr. 
Stuart the late member for Banbury, being regarded as a sup- 
porter of the reform bill, was no longer considered a fitting 
representative for its opponents ; and as the majority of the 
corporation were decidedly hostile to the proposed change, a 
new candidate was provided for them in the person of colonel 
Henry H. Hutchinson of Weston-by-Weedon, who had mar- 
ried the widow of the hon. Frederick Douglas. The 2nd of 
May, the day fixed for the election, was rapidly approaching, 
and the most cogent and convincing reasons of a purely per- 
sonal character were held out to such of the eighteen electors 
as were known to be opposed to the bill, in order to induce 
them to abstain from tendering their votes. In point of fact, 
intimidation of the most threatening kind was freely resorted 
to by the supporters of the bill, in order to deter their oppo- 
nents from coming to the poll. It was necessary, however, 
that a candidate should be found for them also ; and contrary 



242 THE HISTOEY 

to the wishes of his friends, who tried to persuade him that 
he had no chance of success, Mr. John Easthope, a London 
stockbroker, was induced to allow himself to be put in nomi- 
nation. 

The eventful day arrived and the whole town was in com- 
motion. A notice had been issued requesting heads of families 
to keep women and children within doors — an ominous warn- 
ing of intended mischief. Soon after three in the morning, 
the sound of the horn summoned the reformers to their allotted 
posts. The North Bar was barricaded with waggons, and 
the defenders of this important position were armed with 
formidable bludgeons, and with the still more formidable 
stakes to which the sheep-pens were secured on market days, 
Lieut-colonel Miller, an old warrior of the Peninsula, and the 
Rev. E. G. Walford, were the only non-resident members of 
the corporation, hostile to the measure, who succeeded in 
evading the blockade — the former by a flank movement 
through the Plough yard, and the latter by arriving in the 
town on the evening before the contest. Mr. Easthope also 
arrived on the night of the 1st, and on the morning of the 
2nd, he addressed an enthusiastic assemblage of his supporters. 
Between eight and nine, colonel Hutchinson was observed to 
leave the mansion of Mr. Brickwell in Coinhill, and a mob of 
persons rapidly collected. The Eev. E. G. Walford, who was 
in company with the colonel, had his hat knocked over his 
eyes, and the gallant candidate himself was about to be still 
more roughly handled, when he drew a dagger with which he 
kept his assailants at bay, through the market place and along 
Bridge street, although the crowd was increasing at every 



OP BAITBURY. 243 

step. He gained the bridge, when the cry was raised, " Over 
with him into the canal !" but the gleaming dagger deterred 
the boldest from grappling with the veteran, and his hat 
only visited the limpid element beneath. On arriving at the 
toll-gate which then stood at the far end of the bridge, one 
who was in those days^ as he is still, a trusted leader of the 
people, mounted the barrier and addressed the assemblage in 
words of warning. He told them that they had done enough 
in driving the foe from their gates, and enjoined them not to 
sully their victory by further violence. His eloquence pre- 
vailed, and the crowd returned to the town. The polling took 
place at the old town hall, and only two of the supporters 
of colonel Hutchinson ventured to record their votes on his 
behalf, whilst six were registered for Easthope and reform. 

Parliament met on the 14th of June, and the reform bill 
was introduced on the 24th ; on the 4th of July, the debate 
on the second reading commenced, and occupied the house of 
commons for three nights, when the division showed 367 
against 231, thus giving ministers a majority of 136. From 
the 13th of July to the 7th of September, the opposition 
waged a hopeless war with the government, battling in com- 
mittee against every clause; and on the 15th, the third read- 
ing was carried by a majority of fifty-five. On the 3rd of 
October, earl Grey moved the second reading of the bill in the 
house of peers, and after a lengthened discussion, the measure 
Was rejected on the 8th, by 191 against 158 votes. On 
Monday the 10th, lord Ebrington brought forward a motion 
pledging the house of commons to support the ministry, which 
wa& carried by 329 against 198. 



244 THE HISTORY 

On the 12tli of December, the measure was again intro- 
duced by lord John Eussell, and passed the commons on the 
23rd of March, 1832. It was read a first time in the upper 
house on the 26th, and the second reading was moved on the 
9th of April, the division occurring on the 13th, when 184 
peers voted in favour of the second reading, and only 175 
against it, thus giving ministers a majority of nine. But in 
the committee, the anti-reformers obtained a victory and the 
ministry resigned on the 9th of May. 

Then arose such a turmoil throughout the country as has 
rarely been witnessed in a time of peace, and language of 
the most threatening kind was used towards those who had re- 
jected the measure. Petitions poured in to both houses,, 
many of them more strongly than respectfully worded, and 
one of these was sent from Banbury, praying the house of com- 
mons to refuse the supplies until the reform bill should be- 
come law. On the 10th, lord Ebrington again came to the 
rescue, and moved " That an humble address be presented 
to his majesty, humbly to represent the deep regret felt 
by the house of commons at the change that had been 
announced in his majesty^'s councils by the retirement of those 
ministers in whom the commons of England continued to re- 
pose unabated confidence." On a division the resolution was 
carried by a majority of eighty. Lord Lyndhurst was sent 
for by his majesty ; but after consulting with the duke of 
Wellington and Sir Eobert Peel,, it was found impossible to 
construct a cabinet in the existing state of affairs, and on the 
15th, earl Grey was again sent for by his majesty, and autho- 
rised to take the necessary steps to carry the reform bill into 



OP BANBURY. 245 

law. Understanding the hint thus conveyed, the great ma- 
jority of opposition peers abstained from attendance in the 
upper house, and on the 7th of June, the bill received the 
royal assent by commission. Thus the farce of eighteen men 
returning the candidate who should be supposed to represent 
the borough was brought to an end, and the franchise was 
extended to all the £10 householders in the parish. A tri- 
umphal procession took place on the 13th of July, and a 
general illumination concluded the business of the day. 

On the 3rd of December, ParHament was dissolved by pro- 
clamation and the first election took place under the new 
order of things. Henry J. Pye, Esq., of Chacombe Priory, 
was announced a candidate in the conservative interest, and 
Henry William Tancred, Esq., appealed to the constituency 
on behalf of the liberal cause. Einding his prospects of suc- 
cess to be exceedingly remote, Mr. Pye withdrew from the 
contest, and his rival was returned without further opposition. 
The session of 1833 passed over without any event of great 
importance, but in that of 1834, there was a difference of 
opinion among the ministry relative to the propriety of insti- 
tuting an enquiry into the temporalities of the Irish church, 
and the duke of Eichmond, Sir James Graham, and Mr. 
Stanley — now the earl of Derby — seceded from the cabinet. 
Mr. Littleton, the Irish secretary, having embroiled the 
government by too friendly and confidential a communication 
with O'Connell, Earl Grey resigned and was succeeded by 
lord Melbourne on the 7th of July. The poor law amend- 
ment act was the most important measure passed in the course 
of the present session, and the Banbury union, with its 51 



246 THE HISTOKY 

parishes, was the result of the act. The death of earl Spencer on 
the 10th of November, by the elevation of lord Althorp to 
the house of peers, induced the king to relieve lord Melbourne 
of the responsible duties of prime minister. Sir Eobert Peel 
was sent for from Italy ; but it was late in December ere his 
cabinet was complete. The new premier wisely deemed it 
impossible that he could carry on the affairs of the nation with 
the house of commons as then constituted, so he resorted to 2k 
dissolution in January, 1835, and appealed to the country for 
a fair trial. Edward Lloyd Williams, Esq., barrister-at-law, 
appeared on this occasion as an opponent to Mr. Tancred, but 
he only polled forty three votes, whilst the former member 
had upwards of two hundred recorded in his favour. On the 
question of dealing with the surplus revenues of the Irish 
church, ministers were left in a minority and resigned on the 
8th of April, lord Melbourne being again called ou to the 
helm of the state. 

Great dissatisfaction existed with regard to the self-elected 
municipal corporations throughout the country, whose powers 
were subjected to no popular control, and who neither repre- 
sented nor were respected by the people. On the 5th of June, 
lord John Eussell introduced the government measure of 
municipal reform, by which the powers of local legislation 
were wrested from the irresponsible hands of those who held 
them, and the favour of the ratepayers was the only pass- 
port to municipal office. The bill was opposed at every stage, 
and was sadly mutilated in the house of peers ; but by the 
firmness of tlie commons, many of the obnoxious alterations 
were expunged, and on the 7 th of September, it passed into a 



OF BANBURY. HI 

law. One of the last acts of the expiring corporation was to 
sell the maces and regalia of the borough to the head of the 
house of Wroxton, under the pretence of liquidating a debt— 
a course of procedure which few other bodies in the kingdom 
were found mean enough to equal. In accordance with the 
provisions of the act, the new corporation was elected in De- 
cember and January, and Thomas Tims, Esq. was the first 
mayor under the amended system. 

On the 19th of June, 1837, death reigned in the palace of 
England's kings, and William IV. breathed his last. The 
duty of administering the government of a mighty empire 
then devolved upon Yictoria, a young and inexperienced lady, 
but one who has now become a sage matron, beloved by her 
subjects and respected by the world. Parhament was pro- 
rogued on the 1 7th of July and dissolved shortly afterwards, 
when Henry Tawney, Esq. entered the lists with Mr. Tancred, 
to compete for the suffrages of the electors of Banbury. But 
conservative opinions were somewhat at a discount ; for whilst 
181 polled for Mr. Tancred, only 75 could be prevailed on to 
support his opponent. The coronation of her majesty took 
place on the 28th of June, 1838, and was signalised in Ban- 
bury by one of the most extensive banquets that ever took 
place within the walls of the borough. Accommodation was 
provided in the horse fair for 3600 guests, and for their re- 
freshment there were served up 30501bs. of beef, 17001bs. of 
plum pudding, 16001bs. of bread, and forty-five kilderkins of 
beer and porter. 

In consequence of a disagreement with the local parliament 
of Jamaica, the government brought in a bill to suspend the 



^48 THE HISTORY 

constitution of that colony for five years ; but being unable 
to carry it, they tendered their resignations, and Sir Robert 
Peel was authorised to name a cabinet on the 7th of May, 
1839. That statesman required the removal of certain ladies 
from the household of her majesty, prior to his acceptance of 
office, and the queen decHning to comply, the cabinet was 
re-constructed. In May, 1841, the house of commons passed 
a vote of want of confidence in ministers, and the parliament 
was shortly afterwards dissolved. At the election which fol- 
lowed, Mr. Tancred was opposed by Hugh Holbech, Esq. of 
Earnborough in the conservative interest, and by Mr. Henry 
Vincent on behalf of the more advanced liberals, but at the 
close of the poll, the numbers were for Tancred, 124 ; Hol- 
bech, 100; Yincent, 51. The new house of commons also 
expressed its want of confidence in ministers, on which they 
resigned accordingly and were succeeded by Sir Eobert Peel. 

The ecclesiastical district of South Banbury was formed in 
1846, under the vi. and vii. Victoria, and at first compre- 
hended all that part of the parish situated on the southern 
side of an imaginary line commencing at its western boundary 
and drawn along the middle of the Broughton road to West 
Bar street in the borough ; then along the middle of the 
street just named, across the horse fair, down High street, and 
along Bridge street, to where the Cherwell divides the two 
counties. The new district was also to include all that part 
of the parish situate on the eastern side of the river, and con- 
sequently in the adjoining county of Northampton. The 
foundation stone of Christ church was laid on the 28th of 
November, 1851, by the baroness North, and underneath this 



OP BANBURY. 249 

was deposited a leaden box containing specimens of the current 
coin, and on a plate was engraved, " To tlie honour and glory 
of Christ our Lord, this foundation of a church for the district 
of South Banbury was laid by the baroness North of Wroxton 
Abbey, in the presence of Samuel lord bishop of Oxford, No- 
vember 18th, 1851. Eev. Charles Porbes, M.A., incumbent, 
Benjamin Ferry, Esq., architect, Mr. Joseph Hope, builder." 
The Church Building Society contributed the sum of £iOO 
towards the expence of the erection, on condition that seven 
hundred of its sittings should be free. 

By an order in council, dated the 3nd of Februrary, 1852, 
the boundary line of this ecclesiastical district was altered, 
and a scheme was ratified which had been presented by the 
ecclesiastical commissioners. It directed that the boundary 
line should commence along the Oxford road where the parish 
of Banbury joins the chapelry of Bodicote, along the centre 
of this road and South Bar street to the lane leading to Cal- 
thorpe cottages, along the centre of the said lane to the wall 
bounding Calthorpe grounds ; along the side of Calthorpe 
cottages, and round the boundary wall of certain other houses 
or tenements, the property of Barnes Austen and others ; 
thence along the boundary wall of Calthorpe grounds to the 
ditch dividing the properties of the Eev. W. C. Eisley and 
Miss Golby, round the garden Avail of Mr. George Cottam, 
along the centre of his passage to the middle of High street ; 
along High street to the top of Butcher Eow, along the centre 
thereof as far as the Market place, and diagonally across it to 
the end of Castle street, along the middle thereof to Factory 
street, along this to the boundary wall of the garden of the 



250 THE HISTORY 

late Thomas Tims, Esq. ; along this wall through a certain 
building to the canal wharf, across the Oxford and Coventry 
canal and towing path, along a ditch dividing the property of 
Thomas Scrivener to the mill-head stream, thence in a north- 
wardly direction by the said stream to the centre of the river 
Cherwell. All that part of the parish on the eastern side of 
the Cherwell to be in the district of South Banbury, as well 
as the portion to the south-eastern side of the boundary line 
on the west side of the river ; whilst all that portion on the 
north-western side of the boundary line shall belong to and 
form part of the parish of Banbury. 

Mr. John Brownsill of this parish, who died on the 14th of 
October, 184.-8, by codicil to his will bearing date the 18th of 
June in the same year, bequeathed to the Minister of Banbury 
and the Churchwardens of Banbury and Neithrop, in trust, 
the sum of £400, less the legacy duty, to be by them placed 
in the stocks or funds, and that they should yearly at Christ- 
mas for ever apply the interest thereof for the benefit of the 
most deserving poor of Banbury and Neithrop, as they shall 
thiuk best. In 1849, lord Saye and Sele, D.C.L., was elected 
high steward of the borough, and is the present possessor of 
the castle and domains of Broughton. He is the eldest son 
of the late hon. and rev, Thomas J. Twistleton, of Gayton in 
Northamptonshire, and succeeded to the title and estates on 
his cousin's death in 1847. He is the tenth in descent from the 
noted Geoffrey lord Saye, who was one of the twenty-five 
barons appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Charta, 
Like his illustrious progenitors, his lordship is a liberal in 
j)olitics ; although it is only on occasions of importance that 



OF B ANBURY. S51 

he is found to be embarked upon that stormy sea, but his vote 
is then ever on the right side. 

The foundation stone of the Unitarian chapel was laid on the 
11th of September, 1849, and finished in the course of the 
following year. It is built in the early English style, sixty- 
seven feet in length, the width of the nave is twenty-three 
feet, and thirty-five high, whilst the width of the aisle is thir- 
teen feet, The building is a very neat specimen of a place of 
worship, and reflects equal credit on Mr. J. H. Underwood of 
Oxford, who was the architect, and Mr. John Chesterman of 
Abingdon, the builder. The congregation was first formed 
by the Eev. Samuel Wells, who had to resign the vicarage in 
the time of Charles XL under the circumstances recorded in 
that king's reign. 

The commencement of the year 185^ was marked by a 
fearful tragedy, which spread consternation through the whole 
town, John Kalabergo, a native of Lombardy, had left his 
home in early youth to escape the conscription of the first 
Napoleon, and had been settled in Banbury for forty years. 
His nephew William came to reside with him in the latter 
end of October, 1851, in order to assist him in his business, 
and on the 9th of the following January, they left home to- 
gether, in order to undertake one of their journeys in com- 
pany. They lodged on that night at a public house in Prior's 
Marston, and were about to return to Banbury on the fol- 
lowing evening ; when in coming down Williamscot hill, the 
nephew stepped behind his uncle and fired a pistol, the bullet 
passing clear through the brain, and the assassin immediately 
afterwards fired a second barrel, as he subsequently confessed. 



252 THE HISTOEY 

*' with the intention of making sure." He arrived at his 
uncle's house in High Street about half-past six^ and said 
." Uncle dead ! uncle dead ! — dead, dead ; — go for the priest !" 
He was taken into custody the same night, when he attempted 
to lay the blame upon three men, who he said attacked his 
uncle as they were coming down the hill, and one of whom 
pursued himself when he ran away. On Wednesday and 
Thursday the 3rd and 4th of March, AYilliam Kalabergo 
was tried before Mr. Justice Wightman at the Oxfordshire 
assizes, when the chain of circumstantial evidence was too con- 
clusive and convincing to admit of the slightest doubt of his 
guilt, and he was doomed to undergo the last penalty of the law. 
He made a full confession of his crime to Drs. Tandy and Faa, 
the priests who attended him whilst undet sentence of death, 
and admitted having robbed his uncle on several prior occa- 
sions. Prom information received from the unhappy culprit, 
Ur. Tandy caused a grave to be searched, and immediately 
under the surface, there was found a tin cannister containing 
two gold watches, three silver ones, a dozen silver tea-spoons 
and other articles the property of the deceased. No effort was 
made to obtain a commutation of the sentence, and on the 
morning of Monday the 22nd of March, William Kalabergo 
was executed on the tower of Oxford Castle in the presence of 
many thousands of spectators. By the side of the turnpike 
road at Williamscot hill, three miles and a half from Banbury, 
a stone marks the site of the cold-blooded deed. 

The Town Hall was erected in 1858, at an expence of 
£5,737 ; towards which Mr. Tancred gave a donation of £500; 
lord Saye and Sele, £100; the sale of the corporation estates 




^ 



^1 



,1 



i> 



:^ 



OF B ANBURY. 25 S 

and funded property realised £4,887; leaving £250 to be 
taken from the borough rates. The building is of a serai- 
Gothic order of architecture, and has more the appearance of 
a grammar school than a town hall, as the visitor enters from 
the railway stations. On the ground floor are six cells, the 
council chamber, the police office, the orderly-room of the rifle 
volunteers, and a place for storing their arms ; vrhilst the large 
hall up-stairs is devoted to the purpose of holding the quarter 
sessions of the borough, the caunty courts of the district, 
concerts, lectures, tea parties, and balls. 

Eesuming our brief summary of political events. Sir Eobert 
Peel, aided by the great body of hberals in the house, suc- 
ceeded in repealing the import duty on corn, in 1846, so that 
the bread of the people reached them untaxed, but was defeated 
on the 25th of June in the same year, and was succeeded 
by lord John Eussell as first lord of the Treasury. A new 
parHament was summoned in 1847, when Mr. Tancred was 
again elected for Banbury. The Trench revolution of 1848 
elevated Louis Napoleon to the President's chair, by a majority 
of nearly four millions of votes over general Cavaignac, and 
formed his first step in advance to the imperial throne. On 
the 29th of June, 1850, Sir Robert Peel met with a fall from 
his horse, and died on the following Tuesday night, amid ex- 
pressions of very general regret; and in 1852, the duke of 
"VVeUington was also numbered with the dead. On the 16th 
of Pebruary, in the last-named year, lord John Eussell brought 
forward his plan for the establishment of a local mihtia, to 
which his former colleague lord Palmerston proposed an amend- 
ment, and the latter being carried, lord John Eussell resigned 



254 THE HISTORY 

the seals, and was succeeded by the earl of Derby. Parliament 
was dissolved in the following July, and Mr. Tancred was 
again returned member for Banbury. The government of 
lord Derby was of short duration ; for in the house of com- 
mons, ministers were defeated on the budget, when they at once 
resigned, and the earl of jVberdeen was appointed premier. 
The years 1853, 1854, and 1855, were signalised by the war 
with Eussia, and the withdrawal of lord John Eussell from the 
cabinet of lord Aberdeen was the signal for an onslaught by 
Mr. Eoebuck, when the government being left in a small 
minority, their resignations were tendered as a matter of 
course. Lord Palmerston was called on to take the helm in 
hand, and on the 8th of Tebruary, 1855, he declared his 
cabinet complete. A conference was held at Vienna relative 
to the engagements of the war, at which lord John Eussel was 
the principal representative of England ; but the diplomatists 
arrived at no satisfactory results. However, the capture of 
Sebastopol virtually terminated the Eussian war, and terms of 
peace were concluded at Paris. 

Ministers, having been defeated on the subject of the Chinese 
war, dissolved parhament on the 2-1 st of March, 1857 ; and 
at the election which followed, Mr. Tanored was opposed by 
Mr. Edward Yates, but defeated his new opponent by 2^16 
to 58 votes. The foundation stone of the Cornhill Exchange 
was laid by Mr. James Cadbury on the 9th of April, and the 
building itself is highly ornamental, the height of the interior 
being fourteen yards, whilst the ground area contains about 
5000 square feet. At the commencement of the session, 1848, 
lord Palmerston was censured for his subserviency to the ruler 



OF BANBURY. 255 

of Prance, on which he resigned and was succeeded by lord 
Derby's government; but the pro- Austrian poHcy of the con- 
servative chief proved his overthrow, and he was again suc- 
ceeded by the government of lord Palmerston. On the 29th 
of October, it became known in Banbury that the venerable 
Mr. Tancred had been struck down by an almost hopeless 
paralysis, and on the 1st of November, Mr. Gillery Pigott 
issued an address declaring himself a candidate for the seat 
shortly to become vacant. On the following day, Mr. John 
Hardy followed suit, and Mr. Samuelson's address appeared 
upon the 3rd. On Tuesday the 7th of December, a deputation 
waited on Mr. Edward Miall, and presented him with a requi- 
sition desiring him to allow himself to be put in nomination, 
a request with which he eventually compHed. The election 
took place on the 8th of February, 1859, when Mr. Sergeant 
Pigott resigned, and at the close of the poll, the numbers 
were as follows : Samuelson, 177 ; Hardy, 176 ; Miall, 118. 
In the month of April, parliament was dissolved by lord 
Derby's advice, and Mr. Samuelson, and Sir Charles Douglas 
were the only candidates who went to the poll — the gentleman 
who had been induced to come forward on conservative prin- 
ciples having resigned a fortnight previously. The election 
was fixed for the 29th, and the conservatives having thrown 
the weight of their influence into the scale for Sir Charles 
Douglas, he was returned by 235 votes to 199. The foun- 
dation stone of Banbury Cross, a monument raised in com- 
memoration of the marriage of the princess royal with the heir 
apparent of the throne of Prussia, was laid in May, and the 
structure was inaugurated by a Forester's procession on the 



256 THE HISTORY OF BANBUEY. 

Srd of July, 1860, a? delineated in the frontispiece of the 
volume now drawing to a close. 

The present trade of the town is varied and improving. 
Its cakes have rendered Banbury famous throughout the 
world, and in the getting up of these, the confectioners of the 
town still shine pre-eminent. The manufacture of the fabric 
known as " plush" is extensively carried on and gives employ- 
ment to about 120 families. Web, girth, and horse clothing, 
are also made to a considerable extent, but not so largely as 
formerly. The building trade is extensively followed, and 
gives employment to many workmen. Eope, twine, and sack 
manufactures have been long established and are now in a 
thriving condition. There is an extensive manufactory of 
blacking at North Bar, specimens of which were shown in 
the exhibitions of 1851 and 1862. But it is in machinery 
that Banbury excels, and her Vulcan ironfoundry, her Cher- 
well engine factory, and last but not least, her Britannia works 
for the manufacture of agricultural implements, have carried 
her name to the remotest lands. May she long continue to 
flourish and improve, until she realises the motto inscribed 
upon her arms, 

'* Bommti0 §.obi^ Sol et Galium/* 



G. WALFORD, PRINTER, BANBURY. 



APR 24 1902 



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